Avatar Ven'ettes
by Hearns
Summary: A series of short stories, some connected based in James Cameron's world of Avatar. Taking submissions for ideas for future chapters. Chapter 7, Up.
1. Chapter 1

Avatar Ven'ettes: A series of shorts

This is a series of small short stories following the various characters between the Battle of the Halleluiah Mountains and afterwards.

If you have an idea for a segment let me know.

Hearns

1: Burned Alive

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Trudy Chacon knew she was screwed as she did the dance of death with her Samson against Quaritch's Dragon. That was when she felt the missiles hit her chopper. Despite all of her years on Pandora, she wasn't here for the money; she was here for a new beginning.

When Trudy was a child, she had visited a Curandera (female shaman) that lived down the block in her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Now Curanderas weren't something one thought of existing in the world given how much a mess Earth had become. Given that Trudy was a spiritual person who could trace back her family roots back generations before Westerners came this little connection meant so much to her over the years. For Trudy's parents wanted her to enjoy her heritage, the ties to the spirits, and that being a third generation Marine, there was a code that needed to be followed in both the spiritual sense and a physical one.

The Curandera, who wore the black garments significant to the Chicano culture, took Trudy aside and spoke to her and said that she would live two lives... One that would lead to her destiny; and the other to create a new kind of life that would bond worlds together.

Now for a child this idea of having two lives was confusing as hell. Heck even superheroes had double identities, not this two life crap. After seeing the resource wars break out on Earth and becoming a Marine in order to protect the innocent she found her calling in being free by flying through the air as a helicopter pilot. But Trudy felt something missing in her life as she started to have recurring dreams at times of the intelligent life on the Alpha Centauri moon of Pandora...

This message of having two lives started to take place as after being heavily shot at during an extraction operation in the oil fields of Venezuela Trudy nearly died. Seeing that she needed to leave... She chose that the moment her tour was up, she was going to sign up and head off world. With that Trudy signed up with the RDA and began training to fly the Samson class of helicopters through Pandora's atmosphere.

During the simulation runs through the Moon's atmosphere Trudy knew that there would be no one shooting at her, other than some wildlife that was about the size of her Samson that she would be flying along side, it would be a major change for her. The real thing took her breath away. It was nothing compared to her first flight through the Hallelujah Mountains with her flight instructor. Jake and Norm had the same plastered looks on their faces she did when she flew Grace and a small team of teachers up there.

That was when she had had met Dom... A fellow Jarhead like herself who was swapping out his tour in the mountains to take a few researchers who were going to explore the coastal area to learn more about the river paths in the area. For Dom, he was more of a beach guy and seeing how the rivers worked along the coast would be a change for him. But as the research teams were swapping out for the few weeks, they were going to be working together to trade information about the terrain she would be flying for the team given her Rookie status. After some of the briefings… she and Dom found a store room and... Well to put it bluntly. Decided to start a relationship, but not on the casual sex, though that was great.

It was months later when Trudy and Dom nearly gave Grace a heart attack when she caught the Trudy and Dom fucking like Na'vi in freaking heat in the bunks. Grace after a transfer back to her human body was a cranky person as she opened the hatch to her pod was usual. Grace minus cigarette and angry not a good sign after the day she have had, well that and using her bottle of fifteen year old scotch being used by two Jarheads to lubricate the wheels of love didn't help things either. She was lucky that she and Dom weren't thrown out of the Cabin without their atmosphere masks. Later Trudy learned the reason for Grace's anger was that Mo'at of Omaticaya had banished Grace for her being connected to Quaritch by being a Sky Person. The man just made life worse for everyone because of his actions.

Grace like Mo'at had seen the uniform and just blew up at the amount of damage done by that man. Trudy had quickly grabbed a pair of panties and a shirt and rushed off to comfort the woman. After a few fist flings by the woman and a shoulder to cry on Grace was still angry, but not at her or at Dom, they were soldiers, it wasn't their fault that their commanding officer was a warmonger.

Dom... Trudy's thoughts flowed around her as her flaming gunship continued to fall... she could feel the flames working on her body and the seats of her craft as the poisonous atmosphere started to tear through the seals. Dom... I'm sorry. Trudy thought as she went through her memories of her life now turned Martyr. He had understood her, loved her, shit the guy was planning on proposing to her. Would he hate Jake, Norm, her… for their actions to protect innocents after Quartich firebombed that Na'vi Village and now in the process of destroying the Na'vi equivalent of the freaking Vatican.

Dom… I love you.

With his shaved head and mixed Mulatto heritage was a Marine who was like her: Wanted a new start away from the war, death, and stench of the decay back home. Some place different. Though the air was toxic, this place was full of life. If someone learned to do gene therapy to allow humans to breathe Pandoran Air, this place would be like the ancient Australia or Dominican Republic back on Earth. Crap... Dom had folks in the Dominican Republic. Nice place, great food... and the people... Next to Pandora...that was the place she wanted to be. But the War had changed that... Earth was reaching its limits and the Moon was becoming like the suburbs. Hell, Mars was mostly colonized by folks from the Fertile Crescent regions and Alaska. The 889 project, well hell that was several more light years away and that was a generational long term colony. Twenty-five year Cryo run one way, a little too far away for her tastes. Here at least she could learn what was going on back home.

Yeah Earth was crap, but it was where she was born...

"So what is Earth like?" Trudy remembered the words of a Na'vi youth speak with her as she unlatched the Avatar Command platform near the Tree of Souls... It had been hours after Grace's death... But the kid's words suck with her even if his English was a bit broken.

"It was once like Pandora long ago... we got stupid and destroyed it thinking it would grow back, killed innocents, did much harm to it. Before we realized what we had done, the planet lay dying so badly injured... I am not letting it happen again. Humans... Sky People have to grow up, know that we have to give back."

"Are you a student of Ewya? Because all energy we take, we have to give back." Trudy looked sad at that.

"I wished that we learned that lesson sooner." That was about the time she checked and cocked the guide on her weapons... That was when she recorded a message for delayed transmission to Dom telling him not to hate her or Jake or the others who were about to turn Hell's Gate into a war zone as Scientist versus soldier and Miner would eventually break out.

Something jarred the side of her falling Samson, the atmospheric flower tin explosion that created the fireball she was now in was shook again. Her craft had hit a vine that was hooked to the floating chunk of rock she had duels around. That was when a white jellyfish seed had hit the windshield of her Samson, then another, and another... Then it looked like she was flying through a swarm of these things, fuck it was raining them. Then the seal broke on the canopy and Pandoran air flooded in and the fire was put out by the change in pressure. That was the time she could see her burnt flesh...

It hurt too much to scream as a line of rocks seemed to float into her path with thick vines attached.

Trudy was jarred by the impact as her Samson started to get snagged into the vines... Then one of the vines broke and with a mass of floating rocks her once mighty flying machine crashed as she felt her head slam hard across the back of her seat knocking her out.

The last thing Trudy Chacon saw before was those jellyfish seeds start landing en mass on her cockpit window. One of them stuck to her body that had come through with the seal break and moved back and forth under the hiss of a broken air line.

Jake... Dom... Norm... Nerii... Somebody... Stop Quaritch...

_I will child of Gaia..._

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Well, let me know what you all think of this story?

Hearns


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for all of you who have read the story, and to the few of you that have posted comments to it a major thanks goes out to ya' all.

For those who have asked what has happened to Trudy... I give you the follow up.

Chapter 2: Seeds of Eywa

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Y'zaji stood before the valley of the Iknimaya Mountains, a place that Sky People had called Hallelujah. She had always wondered about that word until the Sky Person Norr Man had told her that it meant blessed or praise of God, which in her mind meant Eywa...

But this place of praise had been turned bloody by the battle to save this world. Between the number of wounded that needed to be found both Na'vi and Sky Person and tended to under the orders of Jakesully, the Rider of Last Shadow. It had forced both sides to an uneasy truce.

She had recovered several dead of her tribe on the back of her Direhorse, but seeing that several Sky People had come for their dead as well and started placing a few placing markers made up of their breathing mask, a weapon and their foot coverings had caused her to do the same for some of their fallen out of respect whenever she had found them.

That was when she turned to see Norr Man walking in the captured Armor that Walks that had belonged to the evil Sky Person War Chief, Quaritch.

Norr Man was a Dreamwalker like Jakesully. But unlike Jakesully had Norr Man's Dreamwalker body had been injured during the great battle and it was being tended to by several healers and shamans.

Norr Man was a nice Dreamwalker given that he had raced into battle after his Dream body had been injured and fought beside several Na'vi warriors, even tending to the wounded who with his skill of healing herbs had saved many times over. Her own brother had been tended to by him and even after Quartich's warriors kept pressing on during the march onto the Tree of Souls. That was until Eywa answered their prayers and summoned all of the beasts of the jungle to attack the forces of darkness encroaching upon them and smashed them under foot, fang and claw.

"I think everyone got the point... Don't fuck with things you don't understand." Norr Man said in 'ìnglìsì. Y'zaji looked out over the damage wondering what he had said given that she only caught a few of the words. Don't... something with things you don't understand. Given the word reference it meant something bad... or emphasis something bad...

"Yes I believe everyone did get this point you speak of even among the tribes of the Na'vi..." Norr Man nodded.

"Yeah... then I wished such a lesson didn't have to be learned with such a price." There was a pause in his voice as he moved over and with a blade moved in and said the traditional Na'vi prayer before euthanizing a crippled Direhorse that was in the throes of pain after having it's back broken in the great battle.

"I hope that Jakesully's talk with the new tribal war leader goes well given that he was on the verge of killing the one who lead the diggers of the ground."

"Yeah Trudy spoke of Dom often during the times we spent traveling around getting samples with Grace. He seems like the type of person that will see things from the Na'vi point of view in that Quartich's attack on their home as well as the way that Selfridge just looked at the numbers for profit.... and those he has to obey getting bad press. Depending on how things go, I think getting Selfridge off planet might be the best thing for a while until he learns some understanding of compromise. The easy route isn't always the best. That people are people and knowing when to walk away from the sale. But knowing that recovering the dead and letting them rest in peace, even for Trudy would be the greatest lesson for the Sky People to learn. I miss her..."

"Yes... and given that she fought alongside of the Na'vi... going as far as to wear our war paint into battle even on her metal flying machine." That was when a seed of the Tree of Souls drifted into path. Then several more drifted into a line moving all around them giving them the feeling of wanting them to go in a particular direction.

"Okay... Jake told me that when these seeds show up it is a major sign among the Na'vi but I get the feeling the seeds want us to follow them." Y'zaji nodded in agreement.

"I sense that too Norr Man..." They followed the floating seeds until they came upon a large setting of those seeds upon a... Norr Man reacted when he saw the blue marked arrow on the front.

"Trudy..." He just reacted as he raced over to the fallen craft that seemed to have been dragged some distance from the place where the battle had started. The gouge marks in the ground and the way that it's tale had been so wrapped into the thick vines of the floating boulders above it screamed that Eywa herself had wanted this craft to be saved, forcing the rocks themselves to drag the craft here for them to find.

Norr Man had removed himself from the harness that held him into the walking armor and started to wipe away the broken seeds on the front of the flying machine's clear rock board to see the face of his friend badly burned. That was when the seed that had worked its way inside started to nudge against the female warrior's face.

With a scream that would rival an Ikran's warcry... The Sky Person warrior awakened...

"She's alive..." Norr Man called out as he moved back to his armor and pulling out a mask that the Sky People needed to breath and moved to the side of the flying machine and into one of the large holes that lay underneath its wings. Looking in Y'zaji saw him move into a hole inside and quickly don the mask to the injured woman. "Y'zaji send the signal we have an injured." With that Y'zaji pulled out her horn and blew upon it the signal that they had found a survivor then waited a moment before she sent out the number of blows needed to state their location.

In Y'zaji's mind she wondered what had kept this warrior alive...

"Come on you Jarhead stay with me..."

That was when sounds of other came... The warrior would need great magic both Na'vi and Sky People to save her life. All Y'zaji thought was that there had been enough death and Eywa had spared this one's life to make a point... No more... Time for healing must take place... NOW!!!

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Note: The memorial that Y'zaji sets up out of the boots, gun, and atmospheric mask is a version of the Fallen Soldier memorial which consists of a pair of boots, the soldier's weapon and their helmet. This image stands for soldiers who have fallen in battle. Since the level of bloodshed that occurred in the film is considerable, I thought that this would be something to drive home the point of remembering the dead on both sides.

Please post a review.

Hearns


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry about not updating sooner on this story, but writing this chapter turned out to be one long nightmare.

There just turned out to be so much back-story I needed to write through to show Parker Selfridge's point of view of the events of the movie.

Hope that you enjoy.

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Chapter 3: Payment Due

Parker Selfridge never thought his life would end like a horror movie as he watched the small lines of sprouting vines work their way up his legs. Only sixteen hours ago he was hearing the screams from Quatrich's men being torn apart by all sorts of manner of beasts. He knew the Na'vi were angry, but the slaughter. Selfridge had vomited from the images the holo-display had shown. They had used their own forces to lure in Quatrich's men before they rolled in the heavy stuff. Then it was a like a horror movie with men and machines being torn apart by Pandoran beasts.

This was a disaster and he knew he was going to get the blame for the deaths of Quatrich's men, and not to count about the mess by the RDA being sued by the families of those same dead men. Add to that to the fact that a small group of Marines and Scientists had returned as the battle was being played out. One of them was Dominic Toretto Riddrick, a Lieutenant who had been covering the coastal area to follow pathways with them and who looking at the scene unfold started barking orders. What he did in fifteen minutes turned the RDA compound into a fortress after she shoved Selfridge into his office and placed a man at the door with orders to shoot him if he came out.

All Parker could do was watch as machines were moved to the gates to block entrance from outside, men armed with sniper rifles placed on roofs and a gathering of every station chief into the Operations center.

After fifteen minutes of listening to the events over the months he had been gone with his men, the lieutenant shook his head at the events that had taken place.

It came out roughly in the following order:

1. Grace's rookie replacement Avatar Driver had gotten lost, but had gotten in deep with the locals and was under orders to negotiate relocation.

2. Selfridge had during foresaid rookie's getting deep with the locals had unknowingly bulldozed a majorly sacred tree that the local Na'vi used prayers.

3. Foresaid rookie had to disable foresaid bulldozer to prevent mess from getting deeper off track to prevent things with the locals from getting out of whack.

4. Quatrich used records which were heavily taken out of context to find a reason why the locals wouldn't leave.

5. Quatrich wanted the natives out after Selfridge Okayed use of light force, which Quatrich considered full use of heavy firepower and murder of natives.

6. Natives got pissed even more after the destruction of their home.

7. Grace and a few of her cohorts decided to run and see what they could do to fix the mess, or at least show that even they had been wronged by these actions.

8. Quatrich decided to hunt down the survivors after shooting at Grace and her escaping cohorts.

9. Local Natives heard about the destruction and pulled forces to attack.

10. Quatrich and fools flew right into a classic bottleneck point and got cut down by some serious wildlife and warriors.

11. The locals were waiting to see what was going to happen next.

That was when the messenger came.

Given that a small group of Na'vi riding Banshees landed outside of the main gate. One of them spoke enough English to state that they wished to deliver a message to the three main chieftains of the Sky People (Humans) from the Na'vi leader Toruk Makto who lead the attack against Quatrich's forces. There would be a truce under the terms that during this time that the dead and injured on both sides would be found, treated and returned to their respective peoples. But given that there would be a meeting to speak on the terms of Stay, Leave, or Die.

So pretty much the flea bags wanted to talk with the surviving leaders of the Warriors (the Military staff), the Dreamwalkers (the Avatars), and the Diggers (the Mining staff) of the human staff at Hell's Gate. This smelled of Jake Sully. But given that how fast Quatrich's forces were attacked. Dying wasn't on his list of things to do. With that the Lieutenant ordered Selfridge to help him start looking over those records and anything that Quatrich may have decided to mess with in his idea of quashing an inferior opponent. At that moment Selfridge realized that he had to compromise a few of his ethics just so he could at least show that he had some skills that could at least pull their asses out of this situation.

But the first thing was to get the Scientists that were loyal to Grace talking and helping the colonist given these demands. Pretty much one of them, some tree hugger named Caiera decided to speak to one of the riders, some girl about fifteen if she was human, and started to learn some things that got passed on to the kind Lieutenant. Selfridge only heard portions of it, but given the news his ass was pretty much in a sling already, it was just depending if someone decided to fire him off to be fed him to the Na'vi or to the Stockholders. Both of which he didn't know would enjoy the meal of hid hide the most. So at that moment Selfridge realized that if he was to live, he would at least figure out what his place was in this new pecking order of things.

The Lieutenant order him into the main Hell's Kitchen area of the base to talk and showed him the projected map of the place around the base as the surviving forces were brought in and tended to in the mess hall area. What he saw there made him want to vomit. There were a lot of wounded and the place stank. Some of the men bore gashes, scrapes, cuts and one of them was having an extremely large arrow removed from his leg. That was when he saw it on the map. The small numbers of Banshee riding Na'vi were just the scouts. But it was the four very large Hammerhead Titanothere that were parked on the leveled tree line just outside of the base that had his full attention. A pack of these things had in a flat out run had decimated some of the heavy equipment that were going to that Major Tree Gathering place.

Well they brought the tanks along and parked them where they could see them and no amount of firepower they had was going to slow those things down if they decided to crash the gates. No Wonder the Lieutenant had decided to park those Hell Trucks and Heavy equipment by the gates and barricade the doors. They were under siege. Then slowly as the satellite imagery showed them slowly moving away.

"Guess they let us know they are here and not to do anything funny." One of the miners said as he watched the image unfold. Selfridge turned to see the young man standing next to him covered in blood.

"Yeah. I get the point. Stay, Leave, Die." Selfridge swallowed hard.

"Yeah, I wonder why they want us to stay? I mean there was damage done. But our late military leader caused a ton of mess with the locals. That explains the leave. But Grace did some good things for them too. So... what if they are trying to figure us out. I mean this Sully guy got in deep, learned things about them. What if this Turok guy everyone is talking about is asking him the same questions about us?"

"So what would some flea bag learn from Sully?" Selfridge spat out.

"I don't know, I mean we know how to fix up Avatars... Hell we practically grow those things like rabbits and repair them just as fast. So what if Turok thinks that if we can create beings like Avatars, what about growing them another one of those trees they live in or healing their sick or ill, think about it, you have some sick Na'vi kid who will die from some injury they can't heal or cure so what about transferring him permanently to an Avatar body, I heard a rumor of it being done before. I mean we wanted them to move, but we thought doing the smoke and mirror things with the Avatars and us using overwhelming force would be a way to pacify them, but seeing how angry they are. We all made small mistakes and it just snowballed on us to the point where they are waiting to see what we do next before they swoop in here.

"And they are about to kill every one of us if we do something stupid." Selfridge rubbed his head.

"Yeah... But if they knew about the rocks we were looking for, and they found them in places that wouldn't bother them... and they knew it was valuable to us, they probably wouldn't tear up the ground as much to get to them in accordance to their traditions and taboos. I mean think about those trees were of some major importance to them. What if it was the species or the spot where the tree was at that made it important? So what if, from what I have heard from the Avatar Drivers that from Sully's logs that they bury their dead with a seed... What if that seed grew into a tree of someone important and maybe it was a grave marker." Grave desecration... this day was only getting better by the moment as he slouched he shoulders in defeat.

"So what... replanting the tree will make things right..." Selfridge looked away in shame.

"Hell even cloning it and replanting it might grease the wheels to give us some breathing room. Buy us time..." Then it clicked... Time... Buy time...

"Yeah... Thanks for the idea." Selfridge realized that he needed to show that maybe that not all Humans were bad... Maybe if needed, he could salvage what he could, maybe if things went bad, the Lieutenant could get everyone out of the Colony, but he needed time. He as great at pitching things to people... That is how he got his job... Now... looking around at everyone in the room that was tore up, scared and terrified... He needed to make the biggest sell of his career.

"Okay Mr. Turok... Let's see what Mr. Sully dug up about you." With that he marched over to the nearest computer terminal, which in his case turned out to be a computer tablet and started typing in commands on the screen to go through Jake Sully's video logs.

In the two hours that followed, Parker Selfridge learned more about Na'vi culture than he wanted to learn about. Taboos, rules, culture, religion, hunting techniques, History... Then he found it...

"Neytiri told me that her grandfather's grandfather was Toruk Macto - Rider of Last Shadow. This major political figure, at first I thought she was given me the guy's name but as I listened I learned that it wasn't his name but it was a title... One Hell of one, but given that he unified the Na'vi clans together during a time of great strife and bought peace to the land. It kinda of blew my mind... Then I realized that Home Tree was where the guy was born, grew up. Heck this is where he had his family. No wonder the people here have respect of his past actions. I know that Neytiri was talking about her family but was more stoked about the fact that he rode Last Shadow... The biggest nastiest thing in the air on this planet. The Guy must have had some stones to have old Mr. Toruk choose him to be his rider. Hell I know from choosing my own Banshee, it was quite a situation between it wanting to kill me at first sight. But Last Shadow... I am impressed. Hell that thing would chew me and my Ikarian out of the sky like a light snack and he rode it. Talk about being a flying bull rider."

Jake was stoked about realizing that this guy was riding this Last Shadow, some big flying creature. With that he started to a search for the term Last Shadow. When the image came up on the screen Selfridge wet himself.

Okay... the guy had some balls the size of mining asteroids to ride this creature. Much less tame it as his personal ride.

And it was the title to one hell of a Bad Ass.

One that all the clans spoke to.

Wait spoke too...

This guy was the head honcho...

Head Honcho... CEO...

Upper freaking management...

Jake had found their boss...

The only reason that the Na'vi in this area wouldn't move was that the place was the freaking home town... Tree of the guy that lead them... in the past. It was like being a President of the United States. So if Jake had found the previous guy's home town, then... The current one was from a different village.

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"Ask Her about Turok... Where he is from? What clan or village..." Selfridge had raced into the office screaming his discovery. Then going through and having to practically play Sully's record before them was when it started to it. Now standing out here in an atmospheric mask in the Avatar Village... Him, Dom, and Max were waiting for things to play out. Ceria spoke in Na'vi the question and the girl replied.

"He is an outsider, came into the clan at Mo'at's request..." More words were spoken by the girl. "Knew of Sky People... Our Ways... Um... His mate had a sister involved in the attack on the hut of learning... The sister was slain... His mate was sad at her lost... Learned of the Dreamwalker... Jake's brother dying... Two become close... Talked much of their siblings..." Okay... so Turok's sister-in-law had been slain by Quatrich's men or at least the guy's predecessor... um, learned about Jake's life... Did an entire undercover boss thing to learn about these new people that were causing trouble on this land... Smooth move... Got close and started to learn about Jake as Jake was earning the trust of the Na'vi.

"So Turok... hit the same problem we have had. Lack of information... He needs to know more about us. So whatever he had told the Na'vi about this place probably gives them a pretty good picture of the internal structure of who is who and probably given that Trudy Chacon was sickened by Quatrich's attack, he has a pretty good picture that not all of the warriors are against the Na'vi." The Lieutenant spoke slowly after had had listened to the radio traffic pertaining the events of the fall of the Home Tree. Seeing how Chacon had reacted to the deaths she had witnessed. The Lieutenant had been angry but it had simmered down to a low slow boil with the current events. He understood when he saw the picture... and the ring... Selfridge kicked himself for the mess he had made. Then he looked at the young Na'vi girl.

She was watching them... and she was moving her lips quietly mirroring what they were saying.

"Yeah... Lack of information..." Selfridge realized as he looked at the Scientist... "How much English did Grace teach the locals?"

"I don't know, enough for them to understand us?"

"Why are you really here?" He spoke the Na'vi girl, but she shook her head reacting like she didn't know what he was saying. Then he said something in Na'vi that he had picked up from Sully's logs. "Skxawng..." The girl reacted.

"I am not skxawng..." Then the girl had realized that the jig was up.

"I'll be damned..." the Lieutenant said as he chuckled.

"How did you know?" Ceria said as she now looked at the girl.

"Just knowing when I am about to be scammed and I dated a girl in college that could read lips." Selfridge said looking at the Lieutenant. "Something I remembered from Media Studies back in Business school. He is trying to figure out what to do next with us, so he is studying our reactions the situation we are in."

"Yes Turok, ordered me to listen and watch you to see what you were like. He knew that there were three leaders, but not knowing who would be control of this place. That the once called Selfridge would either hold his ground or hide, or become stronger, Max... the Leader of the Dreamwalkers..." This is when Max spoke up...

"I'm not the leader; Grace is the leader of the Avatars..." That was when the girl got sad.

"You were her Second... Now you are their first..."

"Were... What do you mean were... her second?" Max wondered why the wording was strange.

"I know that Quatrich shot at Sully and the others when they escaped, but ..." Then it hit.

"Quatrich, the leader of the warriors here, hit her... She was bleeding... We tried to save her. Move her to her Dreamwalker body. But she wasn't strong enough to survive the journey through the Eye of Ewya."

"Wait... you mean Grace is dead?" Selfridge came to the realization that there was another life that had been taken by Quatrich... So the only person that would have been able to figure out or at least negotiate a treaty on Na'vi Terms was dead... Jake Sully... Well... he sided with the Na'vi and he probably had his hands full keeping this Turok guy from storming the base. As the Shock among everyone in the Long House started to set in, the Na'vi Messenger looked worried. Selfridge realized that she hadn't been prepped for this response.

"Tell us what Turok's actions are if we decide to stay or leave?" Ceria's words stuck in the air as everyone was thinking it.

"I do not know... He has called for this truce so both Sky Person and Na'vi can find their injured and dead." The messenger spoke worried about what was unfolding.

"Tell Turok that we will obey the truce under terms that several of our healers are to be allowed to be brought into his camp to tend to our wounded and several of your healers brought here to tend to the wounded that we find here." Selfridge realized that by saying this he was committing men and resources to this agreement. But it would allow both sides to see probably how much had to offer each other at least in the area of medicine.

Max looked at him and understood. "Selfridge... you know that by allowing us into his camp he might see it as a trap or more hostages."

"Think about it from his point of view... he probably knows just enough to kill us, but not to heal us. So think about it, this way we can learn about how badly both sides took it and at least buy time here for the lieutenant to prep a shuttle to get people out of here if things go down the drain. Considering that I caused this mess by knocking down two trees, of significant importance..."

"Importance..." The Na'vi girl called out... "You Destroyed The Tree of Voices... then the Hometree of the Omaticaya Clan... And..." The girl was on the verge of going from being upset to anger to flat out sadness. "You nearly destroyed the Tree of Souls..." Selfridge turned towards the girl and understood.

"Yeah..." There was a pause. "Listen right now given how worked up this girl is about the past actions the humans here have taken," Selfridge licked his lips to keep them moist as they were going dry. "The quicker I can smooth things over with this guy, the sooner that we can either start mining again, or get the hell out of here." Selfridge looked at the base outside of the Longhouse hut's window. "Considering the amount of funds that has been dumped into this place, I would rather that we stay, than make it a total loss for the RDA." There it was... Selfridge realized that it was time to talk preferable Turkey with this Turok guy. The Stockholders were going to have his hide for the village massacre and the deaths of various personnel. If he could make it look like Quatrich had been the cause of the problems, then he probably with a snowball's chance in Hell make it look like the slaughter was his fault. Selfridge would just because of the authorization of moving the locals out was just him passing on the party line. Smoothing things over with the locals after this altercation would probably make him a hero, or at least let him keep his job and crossing fingers not be thrown in jail. Selfridge turned towards the girl.

"We will not attack the Tree of Souls." He paused. "We will be sending a small group with you to meet with Turok if you allow a few of your healers to pick a place for us to establish a point to gather up the Sky People Survivors." The girl nodded.

"I will have to speak with Toruk Macto about your decisions and what I have seen here." Parker understood. The message would be passed on. Now it was a waiting game as the girl moved outside and mounted her Banshee and flew off. Jake was right, they did ride those creatures and boy were they mean looking.

* * *

Several hours had passed as Selfridge watched the girl's flight course on the satellite thermal imaging. Boy that girl could push that creature hard. Once she hit the mountain range it was like she was flying like a bullet, even gathering a few escorts along the way. Then she hit the Na'vi camp surrounding the Tree of Souls...

One hour passed,

Two hours passed

Then halfway through the third hour there was some movement. A small group of Banshee riders were seeing leaving the camp. Five to seven in all, but considering they were coming back. There had been much talk among Na'vi about what had been delivered with Selfridge's terms.

As the riders traveled back the Lieutenant walked over and sat down by Selfridge.

"You know... considering that you have become less of a jerk in the last few hours than I thought you were. I think you did the right thing in figuring out about this Toruk guy." Parker ruffled his hair.

"Yeah... just I wished that they had a radio to communicate with their leaders other than having it being carried Banshee Express."

"Just be glad that we can see them coming." The Lieutenant spoke as he watched the images unfold.

"Yeah, now it comes down if Turok wants to listen to us or not." With that Selfridge got up and started walking to the science wing.

* * *

The meeting went fast, the girl who Selfridge had talked with had returned with several riders. Given their appearance, it looked like they had come from different groups. Seeing Ceria's avatar talk with these locals put him at ease as several personnel gathered around. Most of them were medical staff as per the agreement but with them were a few soldiers, mostly from the unit that had come back with the lieutenant. One of the Male warriors who had some seriously nasty red body paint on his body pointed towards one of Selfridge's group and said something in Na'vi. Ceria translated.

"Which ones are the Healers?"

This was where the deal was made or broken.

"Tell them that they are here." Selfridge motioned for several medics to come forward. There was a nod as several of the double riding Na'vi moved forward with several packs on their backs knelt down and bowed their heads to their counterparts.

"We help you find your lost as we find our lost." The head healer said to the group in broken English. With that a folding smart tablet map was brought out and unfolded on the ground. Within moments an up to date satellite map was shown of the Hallelujah Mountains, the various heat signatures were shown over the topographic data they had as the Lieutenant started to speak.

"This map shows all of the heat sources of every person, both human and Na'vi that we can see from the sky." One of the Na'vi bent down and touched the map and some data came forth. Mostly it said UNKNOWN source. "For the Most part we can't tell the sources apart from one another. We can see where people are at, but we can't tell who it is or how badly they are hurt." The Lieutenant touched the map and with both hands pulled on a section of the display and changed the imagery to show the detail of one of the sites where there were a lot of heat signals. "You know where people might head to for cover and protection from the elements. Places where they can protect the injured if and when help comes." There was a long pause. "We know that people are dying. We need to hurry and set up two camps so that we can bring the wounded there and treat them." There was a look of distrust among the Na'vi.

"Why two camps, would one be better?" He was answered with a simple answer.

"Where would you go if you were hurt?" Selfridge paused before he continued. "The answer is back to your own people." Selfridge stated the obvious. "Since all of the warriors involved in the fight will try to head back to where they had come from, but since they are pretty deep into the valley where the forces fought. This becomes a need to treat them quickly and thus why we are setting up two points. We are sending some of our healers with you so that they can set up a camp where we can treat the injured from both sides at your Tree of Souls." There was a pause as several of the Na'vi listened to Selfridge's words.

"I will go as a hostage to ensure that if anything goes wrong, then I will forfeit my life to Turok Mactado." Selfridge winced at mispronouncing the guy's name, but if this bought the Lieutenant time to rescue the survivors of this mess he had signed off on, then the better. That was when Ceria spoke up.

"I will go as an interpreter and to see if the Dreamwalkers Jake Sully and Norm Spellman are well." There was a nod by the Na'vi.

"We accept under the terms that your flying beasts are unarmed." The youngest Na'vi of the group who was a female in her teens walked over to one of the remaining Sampsons that was ready to carry the medical equipment. The Lieutenant watched as the Na'vi with knowledge that could have only been given to her by Trudy Chacon or Jake Sully clicked the safety on the weapon popped the back of the gun, unstrung the bullet chain feed mount, unloaded the ammo line and lifted the weapon out of the mount and placed it on the ground. Several of the Elders said something in Na'vi to the girl. She spoke back softly and slowly to her elders. There were looks of concerned on all of the faces of the group Humans and Na'vi then the girl moved to the Lieutenant and sat on the ground before him and gave her bow, her quiver of arrows and her knife to the soldier.

"My Cup is Empty..." The girl spoke "Turok Macdo has asked me to learn of the Dreamwalkers so that I might bridge the peace turning this time of healing." This was when one of the Elders spoke up to contest something, but was stopped by another who interjected something in Na'vi like:

"Turok needs more information on these people before he can decide on killing the whole lot of them or exiling them from our lands. Jakesully came to us and we learned about the Humans and he chose to side with us." This was when the Na'vi girl spoke up.

"We have many Clans, as do the Sky People. If we know of which Clans to trust and the member within them, then the rest will obey the rules placed before all. We are both ignorant in our decisions to blame all when it only a few that cause the great problems." Selfridge understood. This went from him dying to at least being able to speak with Turok on the same terms.

"I have lost my son, will this bring him back? No. I wish them gone..." One of the elders spoke up in anger. Selfridge understood where this was going. Turok had to deal with these factions, some wanted them to leave, and some wanted them to say. And Selfridge didn't want to meet the ones that wanted them all dead. Yeah... Parker Selfridge stew... Parker Selfridge head mounted on a pike. Selfridge winced at that image. Biting the preferable bullet Selfridge spoke up.

"The Humans have done great wrongs here; all I wish is to prevent any more from dying. If you wish us gone, then we will leave, but I must speak with Turok first so that we will leave peacefully with Ewya's blessing." This got some strange looks from the others in the group. Selfridge didn't know if he had shoved his foot so deep into his mouth up to his freaking crotch when he said that, but there was some talk in Na'vi that he didn't catch. But whatever it was Ceria was straining to hear before without notice one of them walked over and glared at him.

"You will be speaking with Jakesully; afterwards Turok Macado will make his decision." Okay, Jake got deep... But to be considered Turok's right hand man... Crap, what did Sully have to do get that close? Selfridge didn't want to know. But he knew that Sully would smell any bullshit he would be pulling. So doing something he thought he would never do in public. He would give the truth and tell the truth even if it killed him.

"I understand..." Selfridge nodded with total and clear understanding.

* * *

The flight towards the Tree of Souls was one that was tense. Given the squad of Marines that were flying with him along with the medics were on edge of what they would find when they reached the Na'vi camp. Between having a camera and a microphone wired into his mask, he kept looking over the reports Sully had done. Na'vi culture and taboos, most of that was filed under Grace's material. But listening to the reports, Sully did mostly pointed to him spending more time in his Avatar than with Grace and Spellman. Then something came up in the logs.

"Today out on a hunting party, one of the Na'vi youth's named Tey'bar found my assault rifle that I had dropped after I was running for my life from that really pissed off Thanathor." There was a pause. "The weapon looked no worse for being stuck out in the elements for several weeks, but knowing the amount of damage it was capable of doing. I had to convince Mo'at and several of the other elders to disarm the darn thing. But it was seeing how Tey'bar and Ell'a'u watched me take apart this weapon that had been part of my old life... God... Ewya... Boy I am getting my deities mixed up here... But where was I, yes... Tey'bar and Ell'a'u were watching me make sure that my rifle didn't go off. Ell'a'u seemed to ask more questions about the weapon as I field stripped it, cleaned it and reassembled it, but I think she had seen this type of weapon used a number of times against her parents and friends. Only seeing up-close, the fear went away, but not the respect for it. When I removed the firing pin and coil spring and showed it to her and a few of the others. That was the moment I believe that I wasn't to be feared. Handing the firing mechanism to Mo'at showed that I had given her the bowstring to this weapon that I got welcomed in." Selfridge hit pause on the recording.

Sully had his rifle... The Na'vi girl... Selfridge came to the realization that she was one of the warriors that had witnessed this event... Selfridge hit play again.

"Ell'a'u and Tey'bar started to hang close to me and Neytiri. I probably got more questions about the Jarhead Clan than anything else over the past few days. I see a bit of the rookie I was in basic training in those two. Ell'a'u has asked the most questions about the other Avatars, mostly considering that she has probably seen so few other than Grace and the few that had run the school. I only know a few from my time around Hell's Gate, but I think that she and a few of the other drivers would have been friends, possibly Chance and Chloe who I promised to introduce to at Grace's horror." Sully Chuckled as Selfridge hit pause. Sully had gotten someone in he could trust.

The Gun disarm wasn't a threat... It was...

"Crap." Selfridge called out as he turned to the pilot. "I need to call the base." After a tense several moments, Selfridge explained what was going on with the Na'vi girl who was staying at the base. Sully had chosen her to be his eyeballs and that since the people he talked to the most were members of the Avatar staff or support personnel... Selfridge told the Lieutenant should grab anyone who had flown the scientist or that the scientists had trusted with their lives to stick to that girl like glue.

Sully must have needed to get someone in to protect the base and those in it. Anyone who would have trusted him and befriended him would have been the obvious choice.

Sully, if I live through this I am buying you a keg of beer.

No several kegs of beer.

Fuck that...

A freaking brewery.

Selfridge's elation came to an end when he looked out the window as they were starting their flight through the Hallelujah Mountains.

"Sir you better take a look at this!" One of the security personnel pointed out the place where the battle had taken place.

No wonder Quatrich got his ass kicked.

The amount of Ultanium in these floating rocks was incredible and so little that getting to it would have been impossible. But the way it was spread around the entire chunk of the flying rocks that you had rocks about the size of some of the buildings in Hell's Gate. Then he saw a floating range that was the size of Hell's Gate that they had to fly under to get to the center of this place.

Selfridge felt like a bug.

No matter where you looked, there was a floating chunk of rock hanging somewhere that would provide someone the high ground to fight from. It was like many of the multi-tiered cities Selfridge had grown up in. But in this place… If anyone wanted to take a shot at you, they pretty much knew when to take it.

That was when almost on cue a Banshee with rider detached from one of the cliff sides and started flying near them for a short ways studying them. The war paint was very prevalent on the male's body, but given that his bow was hanging across his back pointed to that he was just there to see what was going on and get a good look at the delegation that was going to see old Turok. That was when the Banshee and rider flew to the other side after he had gotten a good look at a few of the occupants in the Sampsons and flew over to one of the other flying boulders and attached itself and its rider to the other Cliffside as they continued on.

Selfridge wondered what the kid was looking for or probably it was curiosity that one of the Sky People chieftains was coming to speak with their leader. That was when one of the security details pointed out that there were individuals spaced out throughout the mountain range and that there were signal fires set up at regular intervals.

Turok wasn't taking any chances if this was a double-cross. Or he was setting up some sort of communication system to transmit smoke signals to alert the camps of danger of incoming wounded.

Selfridge remembered a scene from some ancient film that he saw during his youth. It was a fantasy where some great battle between man and monster had been waged. But before that the forces along a wall had set off a series of signal fires to alert the heroes of danger. That image stuck in his mind as they flew past.

He just prayed that those fires were to be used for communicate a simple term to all the Na'vi:

"Please let us help."

* * *

As the Sampson came into range of the Tree of Souls, Selfridge whistled. And it wasn't the scenery that was breathtaking.

It was the sheer number of Na'vi setting up camp.

He had seen the images, but to see it in person.

Selfridge gulped then whistled again, this time much more softly.

"Oh Boy…" he exhaled. "I thought what we had at Hell's Gate was an Army… This is…" One of the officers completed his sentence.

"…the freaking fighting force capable of taking Normandy Beach and the island of Okinawa concurrently."

"Yeah, and I thought that we knew the total numbers of forces we were against from satellite..." Another officer exhaled hard cutting of the past part of the sentence.

"Yeah I think we didn't get the image clarity we were supposed to when we did the initial survey." that was when several Banshee riders took flight and started signal to them to follow them down. Looking down at the ground was a series of circular landing patterns that had been painted out on the ground. It was strange seeing some of the patterns painted out to the point of where they matched some of the Hell's Gate landing strips.

Either Chacon or Sully had set this up for Chacon's Samson to return.  
In all of this craziness of coming here, this place looked very sane. Maybe that was Sully's doing to provide someplace that they wouldn't feel threatened. To the Na'vi it was probably a concession to letting him and the other medical staff land.

* * *

Selfridge watched as Ceria got out of the back of the Helicopter. One thing he noticed was that the Na'vi were not squeamish about nudity or partial nudity as he noticed that there were several females that walked around topless, while others walked around with corsets that left their breasts exposed. When he looked at Ceria, he realized that for the most part the female Na'vi given their size and height probably just barely had an A cup breast. Remembering the time when he was a kid swimming at a pool seeing a flat-chested girl's top come off and get slugged for seeing her topless. Well he learned not to stare at a girl's chest especially when she sensitive about not having a decent chest. This time around, looking at the exposed female breasts around him might get him killed. Selfridge put his mind to getting things done.

That was when several of the security team started to move out slowly, with their weapons slung down as a sign of trust. One or two had out small sidearms drawn but mostly that was to make them feel better. That was when a Na'vi female came up to them on a six legged horse. Selfridge exhaled when he saw that her garments though being leather based looked very normal by human standards and her top covered her breasts. Ceria started to speak for awhile to figure out what to do next. Selfridge watched as he studied the individuals around him, both human and Na'vi.

Things were tense, but not a violent tense. More like:

"Okay you are here, what are you going to do next?" feeling of tense.

That was when the Na'vi female motioned for someone to come forward. What no one was expecting was it to be an AMP suit. A really damaged AMP suit with a blown off cockpit hatch that bore the half scratched out name of Quatrich's on the side.

"Several words of Na'vi were exchanged." It didn't take Selfridge long to realize who was piloting the suit:

Norman Spellman.

Spellman stopped the suit and reached out to pat the female on the shoulder and she just nodded as he spoke in Na'vi to the female then a long pause as she started to cry before he touched her chin and rubbed it softly.

"Ceria what is he saying?" Ceria blinked a few times before turning her ten foot tall form to Selfridge.

"That her mother is awake and is asking for her. That they removed the Sky Person Arrowhead from her leg."

_Sky Person?_ It took a moment for Selfridge to realize what the phrase meant.

"Human..." Arrowhead probably meant bullet. That was when Spellman turned to grin to Ceria.

"Hey Ceria... See that you came with the supplies, I am glad that they sent another Avatar Driver along." Spellman motioned for several of the Na'vi to stand down. A few who had war paint that looked like it had come off during the fighting showed that they were still ready to fight, but were as weary as the people back at Hell's Gate.

"Norm... Why are you not in your Avatar?" Ceria question hit Selfridge hard as he saw a Banshee land and the rider get off. It was a male that had some serious red war paint on him as he moved to let another person get down. It was a human and she wasn't Trudy Chacon.

"Sir..." The young woman walked up. "Rear Swan Gunner Private Barbra Summers. I see that you brought the medical supplies." Selfridge noticed as she spoke to the security detail.

"Have the Na'vi harmed you?" Selfridge spoke up seeing that the woman's arm had been bandaged.

"No... Actually, after the stampede that took out a bulk of our forces. Those of us who were trapped or got stuck underneath our gear like I was were found by the Na'vi and pulled out." The gunner replied as she exhaled heavy in her mask fogging it up. "At first I thought I was going to be killed, then be their prisoner. But it was when they started bringing in others in and injured that I realized that they were protecting us. Like Turok Macdaddy wanted us alive." That was when she moved over to one of the boxes that contained medical supplies. "We have a lot of wounded. A few that we have been able to stop the bleeding. Others... who like me had been trapped but mostly unhurt have been doing our best to keep those more seriously hurt comfortable."

"How many men have survived?" Selfridge realized that he needed to know how many to prepared for.

"A little over a hundred, that have been found so far that this close to the camp. Another Fifteen or twenty get found every hour." There was a hard exhale. "Mostly we are looking at a shitload of cuts and broken bones." The gunner reached up and held her arm up. "I have some stitches and some root paste salve in my injury to keep it clean. So far, the more capable ones have been caring for the more seriously injured. More or less they have been letting us move around freely other than a few areas." She pointed to Spellman. "Spellman here has kept a few of the Cats from wanting to tear into us when we got close to the areas we are not supposed to go."

"What about Sully?" Selfridge wondered what was going on.

"From what I have heard from the English speaking Na'vi that he is speaking with Turok and the rest of the head chieftains about what to do next." Selfridge nodded.

"Okay, what have you learned about this Turok Guy?" Selfridge about get his answer from the female gunner when Spellman spoke up.

"Well, let's see, he is really pissed off that you attacked people he cared about. Leveled the Hometree that they lived in. That you signed off on this... There is some debate over how much you knew of what Quatrich was planning on doing. Um... Tore up the land for some seriously pricey ore, they are willing to let that slide if there is some compensation done if some replanting of the destroyed forest... That is mostly seen as making atonement to their Goddess and the desecration of the spirits of their dead. Leveled a sacred tree that allowed the Na'vi to connect with the living memories of several of their ancestors. Something that Grace died learning of its existence and how it worked. Grace's death and bonding with Ewya during a soul transfer ritual in an attempt to save her life allowed Jake to at least get a position among the Na'vi that showed that not all of the Humans were Evil, but needed to be stopped before out of ignorance they destroyed everything this world needs protecting from. Jake's stand in siding with the Na'vi allows him pretty much unlimited access to all of the chieftains in giving them knowledge they need to helping find a balance with the humans that want to stay. Like Trudy and a few others that me and Jake and Grace knew of back at Hell's Gate and those who wish everything gone like Quatrich. They are a still upset at Jake not telling them that he was there to get them to move, but he had to earn their trust. That like us, the Humans is something we don't give up all that easily." There was a pause by Spellman. "The Entire Toruk Makdo situation has smoothed things over with some of the Na'vi. Mostly Jake has had his hands full advising folks of what might happen next. We are just taking it moment to moment seeing what is going to happen next." Selfridge blinked a few times.

Sully had gotten to be freaking Toruk's right hand man...

"Tell Turok and Jake that I wish to meet with them about terms of establishing a treaty of understanding." Selfridge winced at that pondered what to say that would be the right words to say. "I don't any more people to die here. Either Human or Na'vi." Selfridge gulped when one of the Banshees started to sniff at him. That was when some strange floating seed landed on the creature's nose and the animal licked him softly before moving on its limbs away from him. The creature behaved just like a very large cloned dog that his aunt had back on Earth as it moved and kept an eye on him mostly like this creature was smarter than it looked. "Okay... That was strange!" Selfridge said getting the feeling that there was a lot more information Jake had placed in those video journals than he had expected. Like the domesticated Banshees the Na'vi used behaved a whole lot like domesticated dogs. Probably giving one of these things a belly rub would have made this creature's day.

"Yeah..." Spellman paused to move over to the medical staff that had shown up. "Listen, I'll have a few of the Na'vi take you and Ceria to meet with Jake." That was when Spellman started yelling something in Na'vi to a group of youths that gotten near where the Sampsons had landed. "I'll be back in a second; I have a round up a few of the kids who had gotten away from their parents." With that Spellman started running off and with a few young warriors started to heard a group of at least five or six children who given their height compared to the adult Na'vi looked to be entering their teens. How many of these children had been Grace Augustine's students? How many had lost a family member to his actions.

Selfridge had to make sure that he didn't fuck this up. With that he pointed to several of the personnel to start surveying the area around them to see where would be a good place to set up the medical tent.

* * *

As the hours paused Selfridge watched as the atmosphere tent was set up and the medical supplies moved in. Those men who had surrendered to the Na'vi looked like they were glad just to see a friendly face.

Even if it was his.

What Selfridge had noticed was that those men and women though looking like they were suffering from scrapes and cuts. It was the fact that their experiences spoke a lot. Unlike the people who had made it back to Hell's Gate that looked like they had been used as Animal Chew and Scratch toys. These people looked like they had been chased but the animals had gone by them. Some accounts he heard, they all had been let alone, and on a few occasions when cornered by a Thanator: A creature that from scrolling through the reports of the animal attacks, well scared the shit out of him. But from the ways he had heard from the survivors, that one of these creatures decided to sniff them, but the strange seeds started to appear and the animal moved away.

Parker asked what the seed looked liked. And answer was pointed out to be one of the seeds that had landed nearby.

It was the same type that had landed on the Banshee that had sniffed him like a dog.

So the seeds acted as a sort of animal repellant, or something that the Na'vi used to make them docile.

So when Sully got covered in them, then that...

Selfridge looked up to see that the same seeds floating around then moving off away from the group.

So... Seeds equal animal control, so if the seeds make docile then, what did the Na'vi use to get the animals to attack?

That means if the Na'vi in the base wanted an attack...

Selfridge remembered the warriors with the horns and the bon-fires lining the canyon here.

Selfridge knew that he would have to state that he would do whatever was within his power to make things right. That was when he started to notice the various groups of Na'vi watching him. And they were talking about something.

Damn... He should have gotten his head out of his ass years ago and learned the local language. Probably if he had done that he wouldn't have needed Ceria to translate for him. Then the situation changed.

Selfridge watched as a Na'vi Female wearing war paint come into the camp, she looked to be in her late teens probably early twenties. But the look in her eyes screamed, the same way as the men who had gotten back to Hell's Gate looked.

Like she had gone through hell.

"Are you the one called Suff-Ridge." Selfridge had never thought he would hear that his name would be phonetically pronounced, but it was decent enough that he could understand her.

"I am..."

"I am to take you and the female Dreamwalker to see Turok Macado."

"Okay..." With that Selfridge motioned to Ceria to come with him.

"Who is she?" The female Na'vi warrior said worried.

"She is here to keep an eye on me to ensure that I don't make any mistakes in speaking the wrong thing to Turok Macado and to ensure that Avatar Driver Jake Sully is well. He has many friends back at our village and they want to know if there is anything they can do for him." The female warrior moved from a look of worried to concerned.

"Are they warriors?"

"We are his friends." Ceria spoke placing a hand on Selfridge's shoulder.

"Follow." The warrior said as she moved through the Na'vi camp. After a little while another warrior joined them. This was when things in the pit of his stomach started to get bad. That was when another three warriors moved up behind them. There was some light chatter among the Na'vi that Ceria was getting concerned about.

That was when things got bad when a young male Na'vi warrior moved up to them who happened to be their actual guide.

"You must be Ceria... I am Tey'bar; Jakesully spoke often of the other Dreamwalkers. I heard that you were the one that help your leader understand our words. Just that he never said that you would beautiful as the Loreyu." The young warrior looked around to see that the others were moving around them. "I am just curious in that why are you walking with these warriors when I was sent to take you to Turok Macado Jakesully." That was when one of the warriors brought a blow gun and blew some dust into the youth's face, and then another fired off another blow to Ceria.

Selfridge tried to get away given his small size relative to the Na'vi, but he was grabbed by the vent tube to his mask and yanked backwards.

The female called out the words: "Srung oe yìm Tawtute."*

Looking over to see Tey and Ceria still breathing he wondered if it was some knockout drug that had been used on them.

"Should we slay the Dreamwalker?" One of the male warriors spoke up in broken English.

There was the shake of the head for _No_.

"We slay her, she travels back to her other body and they will know." Selfridge realized who "They" were.

"Why are you doing this?" Selfridge was able to croak out.

"Because, you all have to die." The female said with anger. "Your kind killed all of my tribe. I lost by unborn child. I lost my desire to live." The female warrior walked a few steps away before slamming her fist into the side of a tree. "Turok Macado wishes to make peace with you and allow your people to leave this land while allowing only those who Eywa has chosen to stay." Another slam of the fist. "You all must die. I will show Eywa she is wrong about sparing your kind at your village." Selfridge could see the pain in this woman's eyes. Quatrich or at least one of his men must have been responsible for what this woman must have gone through. To lose her family and everyone she knew of... Crap. He had heard of some of the crap that some of the personnel had done, but to see the reactions of what had been done to the locals. She had every right to take it out on him. But to screw over any chance for there to be peace. Selfridge prayed that some higher power would hear him.

That was when they bound him as a Banshee watched from the distance.

* * *

Being tossed at the bottom of some glowing limbed tree as some ritual started to take place. Then seeing the tree come to life and start creeping up his legs. He remembered how he got here. Realizing that if this woman wanted her goddess to see him as the monster that caused all of this emotional pain for her, then he would let her goddess see him for who he was. A person who made a great mistake and was trying to make it right. Even if it meant giving his life to make things right.

That was when one of the strange Jellyfish seeds landed on him.

Almost with anger the woman who had orchestrated this reached out and slapped at it in anger. It was as if she wanted Selfridge to suffer.

Then a screech could be heard as several Banshees landed near the tree and several warriors, both human and Na'vi rushed to apprehend the ones who had done this. That was as more of the growing limbs started to encase him.

"Sully... Help..." Parker called out as he saw a Banshee move over to him. On the back was someone he was glad to see.

Sully. But he wasn't using his Avatar.

"Selfridge, stay calm..." Sliding off the back of the dragon creature Sully dragged himself over to Selfridge's bound form. "Mo'at... We need to guide him free before we can remove him."

"Guide me... Why don't you just cut me free?" Selfridge called out in fear.

"The pull of the Tree is great." An Elderly Female Na'vi spoke as she reached out and placed her cue to the encasing tree limbs. "I will aid you in freeing him."

"Selfridge... Listen to me." Sully was pulling at some of the glowing tree limbs and started to place them into the back of his neck. "The tree is connecting itself to your nervous system. If we cut you free, you will die." Selfridge stopped cold as Sully let several of the limbs of the tree attach itself to his neck. "Mo'at and I will do our best to convince the tree to let you go."

"Right... So why are you not in your Avatar?" Selfridge said with worry.

"Quatrich trashed the link trailer. The Avatar is okay, but I can't link." Sully said as the world started to go white.

"Parker... relax... Ewya... hear me..." Sully's voice echoed as Parker Selfridge felt like he was falling.

* * *

_Parker why are you doing here?_ It was Grace's voice.

Grace... Wait... aren't you dead?

_Trust me... Parker... Just tell the truth. You are not alone. _

Where am I?

_With Eywa..._

Then...

_**I see you ParkerSelfridge...**_

_That is Eywa_

Jake… Please get me out of here.

* * *

Notes:

* "Srung oe yìm Tawtute." - Help me bind the human (sky person).

* * *

Well I hope that you have liked this chapter.

Let me know what you all think of it.

The next chapter will follow Mo'at's POV of being in Jake's and Selfridge's heads as well a bit of Grace's.


	4. Chapter 4

With the Semester starting soon, I have decided to get the most current chapter of this story done. Let me know what you all think of it.

* * *

Chapter 4: The Mind of a Skyperson

* * *

Mo'at had lived a long life before the Skypeople had come to her lands. Over the years she had raised two caring daughters, who due to fate had inherited her fiery personality from her youth. Then came that day where she lost her eldest daughter through the actions of the Skypeople. Now her only child she had left was Neytiri, who through the actions of Jakesully had come to terms with the events of her sister's death. Given that Neytiri had been pushed into a role that wasn't of her choosing. It was as if Eywa herself was placing her through a set of trials for something greater.

When Mo'at had seen Jakesully's Skyperson body and the acceptance that he would go as far as he would to protect the people even at the stake of his own life in either body he possessed, she realized why Eywa had made her choice. That and seeing her daughter happy for once in a long time took the sting off the loss they all now bore a little less painful.

Eywa have mercy on her daughter's future mate as he guided them through this time of healing which was on the crest of dawning.

Now kneeling besides her Dreamwalker son-in-law, Jakesully in an attempt to save one of the leaders of the Skypeople. The images that were flooding her mind as the Spirit tree attempted to engulf the young leader were of not of sadness or anger, but fear of not being able to put things right for her people. All of the People of land of Eywa.

She reached into his mind of ParkerSufferage and let his will guide her to where he was in Eywa's spirit.

The storms of memories of all of the Na'vi that had joined Eywa as well as those who were still among the living were battering his mind as the confusing images scared him. Like a child performing their first Tsay'lu his mind was loud, and screaming all over not with any clear focus that most Na'vi developed over time.

Jakesully reached out to the young Skyperson and sensing familiarity became calm. The will of this Skyperson sought out the shelter from the winds of a great storm of all of minds of the Na'vi from ages past, before it got worse.

* * *

Images from Jakesully's mind were that of a warrior, but it was the familiarity of something of Parkersufferage's own people that allowed the inexperienced leader of the Skypeople to rest and gather his thoughts.

"Jake... Why do you play those flying games?" A young version of Jakesully in his Skyperson body said to his double. Then it hit, this was Jake's brother. His Ti'win. Tom...

"Where am I?" Parkersufferage called out as he landed in the boys' room.

"You are in Jakesully's memories." Mo'at spoke as she realized that she was the same height as the human.

"Who are you?" Parkersufferage spoke falling back across the bed in the kid's room to watch the boys play their game.

"I am Mo'at." The Skyperson looked scared as he looked around the surroundings trying to figure out where he was at.

"What's happening to me?" The pink humanoid pleaded.

"You were attacked by warriors." Mo'at explained as she sat down on the bed. "They wished that your mind would be swallowed up by Eywa. Jakesully and I are attempting to prevent you from falling into the Eye of Eywa." The Human looked around to realize that he had seen the boys.

"You mean that this is..." the Human patted the bed then looked over at the game on the projected screen.

"Jakesully's mind." Mo'at spoke softly as it hit him.

"Oh, Crap..." Parkersufferage spoke softly as he started poking at the bedding before swallowing hard. That was when the room started to shift.

"Parkersufferage... Stay calm... Or the memory will shift and we..." Mo'at was unable to finish the sentence as the Human was pulled hard away from her out of the memory.

* * *

Mo'at fell through the memories of the various spirits looking for the human. Then she found him.

He had fallen into the memories of another Skyperson.

Grace.

* * *

Sufferage felt like he was in a nightmare that was when he realized that he was hooked into some sort of cyber neural link. He had experienced something like this when he had his nervous system tied to a computer once in college with that of a really hot girl he was dating named Alesia. Alesia was a full neuro-connect cyborg and she wanted him to experience the world through her eyes and using a temporary Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID) on his head. The sensory fill of it was great, and it lead to an interesting night after he had taken it off and the two had kissed.

It was strange after encountering that female Na'vi Mo'at who was moving around the place with him... That he would be thinking of something like that. But it was that sensation that was sticking to his head of a linked neuro communications technology. The Na'vi didn't have that level of technology. Fuck...then how was this happening.

Winding up in Jake Sully's childhood memories wasn't something he wanted. That was when he fell again after getting scared. Was this what it was like when you were in the throes of death? With that Sufferage felt reality form around him again.

Where he was at now was some sort of field shack... Definitely Pandora...

"Dom... You brought a Squid unit with you?" It was Trudy's voice.

"Oh Thank God... Chacon you are such a good sight to..." Sufferage ran into the bunk area to find a very naked Trudy Chacon straddling an equally undressed Dominic Toretto Riddick.

"...see."

"Trudy... I want you to see the world through my eyes and I yours..."

"But, this..." Trudy felt the skull webbed structure that would go on her head. "Dom... The tech is the same as what the Avatar Drivers use."

"Trudy..." Sufferage reached out and tried to get her attention, but the moment he placed his hand on her shoulder, which he knew would get him slugged by a rather pissed off Marine who was in the mood for some major Lovin. That was when his hand went right through her and came out a few inches above Dominic's crotch. "Okay that was weird." As Sufferage withdrew his hand as the scene continued on.

""Yeah... Trudy... I was thinking about learning what this Tsaheylu means and from what I have learned is that it is the Na'vi equivalent of doing a neural link." Dominic said as he reached over and popped a bottle of scotch.

"So... the Na'vi a like cyborgs, so what?" Trudy spoke softly as she took a swig from the bottle. This was a strange scene to be played out before Sufferage, but if this was the past then it was probably something important. It was as if he was being place somewhere to learn something.

"Tsaheylu is what a Na'vi couple does when they decide to become mates. It is seen as a way of establishing a permanent relationship."

"You mean you want to be in a permanent relationship between..." Trudy snuggled closer to Dominic.

"Yes, and this way afterwards we can dream of whether or not we want to go to the next step." Dominic took a slug from the bottle to build some liquid courage. That was when Trudy giggled as she slid on the rig on her head. That was when there was a crash as Grace rushed in.

"How dare you..." Grace looked like hell. The rushed over and ripped the bottle away from Trudy and tore the rig from Trudy's head. "Now you wish to learn to be like them. To understand them." Grace looked at the rig in disgust and slammed it down on the floor. "You Jarhead... Military... Trigger Happy... Brutes should have learned that before your kind opened up fire on those kids..." Grace was crying as she spat the words to the two unclothed former Marines.

"Grace..." Trudy moved to cover herself up...

"People like you are the reason Mo'at banished me from the Omaticaya clan."

"Oh, My God..." Sufferage realized that this was a memory of the past with that Grace ran off with the bottle. A moment later Trudy chased after her and after a fight between the two of them. Grace broke down in Trudy's arms. Grace's and Trudy's words couldn't be heard, but seeing the female pilot comfort the scientist tore at him.

"Parkersufferage..." Mo'at was standing next to him as she saw Grace's reaction to the events. "I had no idea that took her Banishment so hard." Then the image shifted again as Sufferage was taken outside to the events of the day that lead to Grace's banishment.

* * *

Mo'at was coming to grips with seeing Grace's memories. She wasn't so much learning about Parkersufferage's life, but the events of the great pain in her life. What she saw shook her to her core.

What was Eywa's action to her seeing these events?

Then she saw the events around her Eldest Daughter's death.

* * *

Grace was happily teaching the children of the village the Skypeople's words of Inglisi. Within the small structure were her daughters Sylwanin and Neytiri. Most of the lesson was introductory language and terms. But what Grace was looking for was to learn more about the Na'vi. The questions she asked illustrated most of this as well as her study of the plants.

Mo'at got a glimpse at times at what Grace was looking for:

Grace was looking for a way to help heal her mother from all the destruction the Skypeople had done to their mother.

There were glimpses of the destruction, but also hope.

Somehow, several of the plants that had gotten tracked back to their mother had taken root and started to repair their world. What caught her attention was the image of a forest made up of nothing but mushrooms that had taken root in one of their deserts.

Realizing this discovery, the idea that other plants could be used to repair the damage done and allow their mother to heal.

That was why Grace was so desperate in pleading to her the day of her Banishment.

Then ParkerSufferage moved through the memory to look outside to see the tree destroyer.

Mo'at could see her daughter's anger, she and ParkerSufferage could see Grace's anger to... ParkerSufferage's predecessor. There was a ruler before him that had caused the loss of Sylwanin. Grace had yelled at him to give her space to speak with the Na'vi.

He was blind to Grace's demands and pleads... then she saw this leader's second... It was the scared one who had tried to destroy the Tree of Souls...

Then Sylwanin out of anger along with her friends decided to set fire to the tree destroyer.

That was when ParkerSufferage started to run when he saw where her daughter and her friends were heading.

They were running to Grace's school.

* * *

Sufferage didn't care if this was a vision of the past. He had to stop those guys... Those kids, little prank and given how trigger happy those soldiers were, probably would get them killed. He had to save those kids. He wasn't going to have those children die again.

He had to make it up to Grace...

He had to prevent the deaths, both Human and Na'vi.

How many needless deaths were brought about a decision about greed?

The Ore...

Fuck the Ore...

He had never thought he would run like this.

He had never joined track in school. He had always played golf. But this... You never knew what you were capable of until you were forced to save someone's life.

"Jake... If you are here, please... Help me get a head of these children. "

* * *

Mo'at had seen the events play out for this Skyperson.

He truly believed that he could change the past.

She understood his desire to save lives now.

But this was Eywa's way to put pressure on him to force him to learn.

It seemed that the more pressure that you placed upon this Skyperson, the more he changed.

His desires to serve others overwrote his desire to protect himself. Then another set of memories started to show.

He had greed. Greed for the rock that floated the Thundering Mountains. Then she saw the image of the Omaticaya Hometree.

They had a large boulder underneath their home.

They wanted it for something...

The image was blurry about it. Something about a...

It was about building a Hometree... In the sky.

Four of them...

Four large... Hometrees.

To move their numbers from their dying home so that they could...

Save their mother.

The rock was needed to take them to the skies so that they could reduce their numbers down on a Red World that they were planning on making into...

They knew how to restore dead and dying land.

The People hadn't known about this need.

They were messy because they needed the rock to build these hometrees to save their people. Parkersufferage was under pressure to gather the rock under the orders of a great gathering of chieftains called the Stockholders.

They were trying to gather as much as they could.

But the destruction...

They needed to learn better ways of how not to damage the land of the Mother.

* * *

When Sufferage sprinted through the doorway of the Na'vi School where he saw Grace in her Avatar.

"Grace..." Sufferage was panting. "Students... In Trouble... Soldiers coming to attack... Very Pissed at Kids..." Sufferage prayed that Grace heard him. That was when the kids came through the door. They were speaking Na'vi.

Grace moved through the class past him. She spoke something in Na'vi before going to English as she looked outside.

"What did you do?" Grace said with great worry in her voice.

Sufferage turned around to see the soldiers coming.

"Grace... Protect the Kids. Get them out of here." Sufferage with those words grabbed a bow and quiver of arrows that was sitting by the door and an Avatar Gear Machete. Thank goodness for Grace's no weapon's policy in the school.

Parker prayed that he had enough strength to pull this bow back and shoot an arrow off. That was when he gritted his teeth and pulled as hard as he could. Feeling the muscles in his weak office worker arms scream as if they were in fire, he let the arrow fly.

The Na'vi made arrow flew and aimlessly missed its target. Cursing and realizing that the soldiers were getting too close. He decided to use the large Machete to at least attack. He had to save those kids. Make things right.

Running like a madman he picked a soldier and swung the blade right through the man's' body. Then he swung again, and again, and again like a swashbuckler of old. The thwap of the blows he bade with his improvised sword drained every muscle in his body. He didn't care if he got the chair for this. He had to make things right.

That was when he heard shooting behind him.

Sufferage turned to see that he had passed right on through the squad of men and not even harmed him. With that Sufferage feel to his knees and screamed.

This was Hell.

He hadn't been able to save those Na'vi kids. Shit... Turok's sister-in-law had been one of those victims and he couldn't save her.

Sufferage Screamed with an anger and sadness that came down in the primordial levels of his soul.

"You tried to save us." A soft broken English female voice could be heard.

Sufferage looked up to see... Several Na'vi standing around him.

"Who are you?" Sufferage looked around him as the strength drained from his body.

"I am Sylwanin, Daughter of Mo'at of the Omaticaya Clan." The Tall Na'vi Teenager knelt down by Sufferage. "Why are you in the memories of the past? They cannot be changed."

"I wanted to make things right." Sufferage said though his tears. "To stop the deaths that had occurred by my people and make things right."

"Make things right..." The Na'vi placed a hand on Sufferage's back. "That is for the living. We the Dead... Have to exist knowing our actions have had repercussions to those who remain."

"So... this is the Na'vi afterlife." Sufferage looked around and reached up to his face and didn't feel a mask. "So I am dead."

"No Taw tute, you are still alive. Eywa has brought you here to learn."

"But to learn what?" Sufferage looked into the Na'vi's eyes.

"To see who you are." It was Grace's voice. Sufferage looked up to see Grace in her human form before him.

"Grace, how did you?" Sufferage looked around him to realize that he was sitting now in the Avatar Village.

"Eywa is looking at you with her eyes. To see your soul." Grace spoke as she was no longer in her human body but her Avatar body and motioned for him to sit on the edge of her Avatar bed. Sylwanin sat down on the opposite bed.

"Sufferage, your memories are an open book to Eywa. See, Eywa isn't just the Na'vi Goddess. She is one very large organism that we have been tearing into, a Super organism much like the ancient coral reefs on Earth. She and the Na'vi are parts of each other." Sufferage was starting to get the feeling that he was about to get the really dumb down version of what Grace was about to teach him.

* * *

Jake Sully was moving through the Tree of Spirits.

Crap... Sufferage was a hard one to get a hold of.

Finding Mo'at she had filled him in on finding Sufferage reliving the memories of the day where the Skypeople had attacked Grace's school.

She spoke of how Sufferage decided to protect Grace's students in the memories of the events. But Mo'at eldest daughter who had died during that massacre had taken Sufferage someplace and they needed to find him. It wasn't until he felt Grace's memories pull at him that he and Mo'at had found Sufferage sitting in the Avatar village.

"I had no idea that... Grace... do you know what this means... fuck... you just advanced computer technology by..." Sufferage was looking around as Jake entered the compound and Sufferage looked far from being the greedy bastard he had once knew.

"Sully..." Sufferage bear hugged the crap out Jake's chest. "I am glad to see you man." There was a pause as Jake watched as Grace just smirked at him and chuckled a little at the scene before everybody. "I thought you had gone native..." Sufferage pulled away and did his best to tap Jake on the Shoulder. "...I mean..." Sufferage was trying his best to keep a level head. "When I saw that image of you smashing the camera. I didn't know that you were trying to protect a discovery you made. I mean the Na'vi have neural computer technology that you were trying to tell me about and I didn't listen. You accessed it. Crap... Grace. You found out that the Na'vi have organic computer technology and they use it to make backup copies of their minds..." That was when he saw Mo'at. "No wonder you guys were pissed at us. We were trashing the archive of your people's civilization with all of our digging. And me pushing that control that destroyed that Tree that Jake was by."

"You are now beginning to see our world." Mo'at spoke with a tone of sternness. "But there is much to be done to atone for your past actions as a people." Sufferage looked away in shame realizing that he had copped to being the one that had cut down the tree.

"Sufferage, listen you are still tied to that tree and we need to get you out of here." Jake said as he looked over at Grace.

"It was nice to see you again Grace." Grace nodded in her Avatar form.

"Yeah Jarhead. Listen Tell Trudy that... She was right. And be nice to Neytiri, I have seen the memories of her Mother." With that Grace turned to Mo'at. " Mo'at. Just when Jake and Neytiri decide to have children, remember there is a time to unleash them for them to learn a lesson or two about parenting." Mo'at grinned at this.

"I will GraceAugustine. Be with Eywa." Mo'at spoke as she looked at her now ageless daughter. "Sylwanin, my daughter. I miss you every day, but knowing your spirit is here make's your loss bearable."

"I see you Mother. Till we meet forever when you pass into the Mother Light. I will ask Eywa to watch over you and Sister."

"Speaking of Eywa... Sufferage, I think she wants to have a word with you before you get back in your body." Grace said as she reached over and walked with Sylwanin into ray of light leaving the three living minds there to see that it was time for them to take Sufferage back to his body. With that Mo'at nodded as she and Jake took Sufferage by the hand and walked him out of the Spirit World version of the Avatar Village to their next destination.

* * *

Sergeant CJ Clarke had been assigned to watch Sufferage during his excursion to the Na'vi base camp to ensure he was safe.

The entire meeting with Turok Macdo was supposed to go as planned, until the young Na'vi girl who had shown up in camp earlier had rushed back.

Between her speaking in her native language so fast, that one of the older Adult Na'vi who knew English had to translate for them.

What had been translated was that a rebel group of Na'vi had grabbed Sufferage and had drugged the Avatar translator and the Na'vi messenger sent to get them.

Having a small medical team check on the Avatar Driver and the Na'vi youth. CJ had seen Jake Sully, who had himself strapped to the back of a Banshee for mobility reasons and had been able to gather a search party consisting of both Human and Na'vi to track down Sufferage.

After several minutes of using a group of small domesticated Thanators, they were able to get a scent and were able to track it to a group of trees.

What CJ saw could be best termed as a horror movie. Sufferage had been tied up and somehow the Na'vi had been able to get the tree to start growing around him.

CJ had heard stories about the plant life on this planet growing with a mind of its own. But seeing this. It was as if the plant life didn't just have a mind, it had a will. Seeing Jake Sully dismount from his Banshee and rush over along with an elder Na'vi leader, they somehow decided to get pulled in. The elder female Na'vi attached her cue braid to the glowing tendrils of the tree around Sufferage's chest while Jake started to pull several of the soft branches and start to shove them into the back of his neck. After several moments the Tree started to fully glow like someone had lit up a floodlight inside of the thing.

Several of the Na'vi who had accompanied them and had detained the traitors started to chant something as a swarm of Jellyfish type seeds started to swarm around. It was as if an unseen, unfelt wind was pushing them as the seeds started to bash against each other in such as way that it was like two swarms of instincts were dueling over who was right.

It was as if whatever was going on was a battle for Sufferage's soul. Between him and the tree. Then... the seeds started to slow down. It was as if a balance had been found as the seeds started to group into a single mass before drifting away.

The moment that happened, the glowing branches of the tree started to pull away from Sufferage's body. Then Jake Sully leaned forward as Several Na'vi warriors and human Medics moved in to help the Humans up and guide the elder Na'vi leader away from the monster tree.

After a long moment as the tree who had challenged the tree were placed in locations where they all could be examined Sufferage turned towards them and spoke.

"Sergeant... Contact Hell's Gate and tell them to get Dr. Patel on the line." The Sergeant did what he was told and brought a radio over to Sufferage. And Sufferage took the unit and placed it next to his mask. "Max... I need you to dig through all of that data you have on the Avatars. I need to know if you can grow a Na'vi. An infant to be precise." The Sergeant looked Sufferage worried.

"Sir Cloning of that scale is illegal and..." Sufferage raised his hand.

"And permissible to several years in prison." Sufferage finished the sentence. "I know, Sergeant. But right now I understand why I was attacked." With that Sufferage pointed to the female leader of the group that had abducted him. "That woman has lost her child, her mate... And God's knows what else due to our actions. I know that I can't bring back her husband, but her child. That is something I want to return to her. She suffered a miscarriage and I want to give her baby back with our magic." There was a long pause on the other end.

"Sufferage you mean..." Dr. Patel paused for a long time before he continued.

"That she went into premature labor mid-pregnancy? I got the entire gory story from experiencing her memories while being sucked into that bio-mechanical computer of a tree I was tied to." There was a long sigh from Sufferage. "Yes Max... The baby wasn't even fully developed. And from what I have seen from Graces' last discovery, the Na'vi have the ability to upload their memories to a sort of living computer network. Max, she wanted to kill me while I was interfaced into this living computer network and trap me in there. Somehow, someway, Sully and one of his friends saved my life." There was a long Pause. "Max... I saw what was left of Grace. She is in there but, I think being where she is important for helping shape things to come. I got enough sense to figure out what this distressed woman wanted and saw some of the Reader's Digest condensed version of what some of what the RDA Security forces have done here. Thirty Years Max... God... Thirty years of stuff that I am trying to keep my lunch down trying not to mention. I know that we possess technology that allows us to upload a mind to an Avatar, but could you rig something up so that we can make a copy of this information so that I can use this as evidence so I can put pressure on the Stockholders to at least listen to the plan that I have." With that Sully spoke up as he was being checked out by the medics.

"Yeah Parker, I think you better fill me in on the plan while I get you ready to meet Toruk Makto." Sufferage understood this and sighed.

"You bring me up to speed on that." Sufferage turned his attention to the radio again. "Max keep me informed on what you can fish up tech wise on the cloning and the tools you need for the download, I'll see what I can do to keep the arrows from flying your way at Hell's Gate." With that seeing several Na'vi warriors move around them. Sufferage knew that he was at the point of making this deal work and not at the cost of his life. He didn't need to meet his afterlife again. "Yeah... Sully, so how much damage did Quaritch do to the link chambers? Because I really don't want to wind up on Toruk Makto's main menu" Sully exhaled hard.

"You better see for yourself." With that Sully started to rub the neck of his Banshee.

"Well after meeting the Na'vi Goddess herself. Nothing will surprise me."

"Yeah..." Sully spoke with a grin. "Well you are going to learn a lot. So ever take shop in High School?" The sinking gut feeling that CJ had at those words made him wince.

"I'll go and get the work gloves out of the Sampson." Sufferage just turned to Sully slowly.

"That bad..."

"You'll see." Was all that Sully would say as the entire group headed back to the camp built around the site of The Tree of Souls.

* * *

Next Chapter: Song of Healing.

Let me know what you think you all of this chapter.

Please click the button below and post a review.


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry about not updating this story in awhile, I have been busy with classes and I pounded out the last of this chapter on my Ipod with my Thumbs.

In This chapter I wanted to cover some stuff that fans who have been e-mailing me wanted to cover. One of which was "Where's Trudy?" The Second was "What has Norm been up to?"

They are both answered here along with a guest star.

* * *

Chapter 5: Song of Healing.

* * *

Ninat, had been the best singer among her clan. With that it had also brought many suitors wishing to become her mate. But for her, she had loved being with children and caring for them. But the thought of having one scared her.

She had seen a sister die during the birth of her child. They had been able to save the child, but not her. Ninat had not hated the events taking place but wished that there had been some magic that could be used to save her sister. She wanted to have a healer as a mate so that she would be at peace knowing that there may be safety in seeing that she could see her own child come of age.

That was when she saw the Dreamwalker Norr-man. He had fought beside the People during the battle to save the Tree of Souls. Even after his Dreamwalker body had been injured by the Skypeoples' arrows. He had moved his spirit back into his Skyperson body to fight beside the sixteen clans of the People.

Norr-man had used his skills to treat the injuries of the wounded. Several of the healers had moved around him as he aided in keeping blood from being lost and on a few occasions he had aided in being able to save limbs from being cut off. Now sitting next to the place where his Dreamwalker body rested and bandaged, she studied the features.

It was strange how the flow of his features were so radically different from Jakesully's. It was as if he face was longer in places while Jake's seemed to have more of a pronouncement of what he looked like. He seemed more, softer. Gentle of a being. Something that made him look like Grace. They did look like they had come from the same clan. It seemed though he did talk like a...

Ninat froze.

He was the son of a Chieftain... A healer and a Chieftain's son...

Grace had been the Chieftain of...

Norr-Man was Grace's son... then why was this Max person the Skypeople were talking about leading them after Graces' death.

Maybe Grace would have had a mate that died, then...

Ninat went through all of the songs in her head of the line of progression, from the various Clans as she hummed a few lines.

The only ones she could find pertained to... Ninat bit her lip. The death of the the leader. A few references to the coastal Ikran clan's leadership roles, so using what knowledge she had she wondered what the Dreamwalkers, No... Norr-man's clan the Researchers would do with the shift in leadership after Grace's death.

Something like this would only occur when the Chieftain died and his successor wasn't of age yet, like as what had happened to Mo'at. So in some cases the role of leader would be combined with the spiritual leader until the successors were able to finish their training. Norr-Man must have been at an age where he wasn't ready. He only looked to be a season or two ahead of her in age.

That was when she heard a twig snap be hind her and she spun around to see... Norr-Man in his Skyperson body.

"Hello." He spoke up as moved away from his child size form. "So... Looking at my Avatar." She nodded at the Skyperson word for Dreamwalker body as he walked over to check the bandages to the wounds on it. "Well, big guy. Sorry about the bullets and falling off that direhorse, but you look like you are going to recover." With that he nudged a section on the ribcage. The face winced in reaction to his contact with it. "That is going to be tender for a while, but we will be able to move with little pain in that area." Norr-man leaned forward and whispered in his Dreamwalker body's ear. "Don't worry, I'll go gentle with you from now on." Then Norr-man exhaled as he lifted the arm up some to check it's mobility as he flexed the limb around some before checking and flexing the arms and legs around.

Ninat watched the ritual for some time before Norr-man turned to her.

"You talk to your Dreamwalker body like it is a Pa'li " Norr-man nodded at this.

"In a way it is, there is a link that Driver and Avatar have that goes deeper than anything." Norr-man worked hard to describe what it was like to be a Dreamwalker. "While I was riding a pa'li during the battle to save the Tree of Souls, it felt strange in that it was much like when I bonded with My Avatar for the first-time. It was like asking your body to move and it did it. Though your mind was outside of it, you had to be polite in knowing that you had to take care of it." Ninat had never thought about the Dreamwalker bodies that way. That they were like a steed to ride upon from within. "I think Jake best describes it as having the spiritual bond of an ikran while moving around on a pa'li." Norr-man turned around and looked at Ninat and saw that she reached over and touched the side of his face by his mask.

"So... the Dreamwalker bodies... How are they..." Ninat was concerned. this was a thought every Na'vi had pondered about the Dreamwalkers, but seeing Norr-man her next to Dreamwalker body it was strange and scary.

"Created?" Ninat was scared and Norr-man saw her reaction and walked over to her and took her hand. "My people have the knowledge of understanding how life is created. On some levels we are able to make some on our own." Reaching up he pulled a strand of hair from his head and held it up. Ninet wondered what he was doing. "This strand of hair contained all of the information and life essence a person with knowledge needs to create another being such as myself. So if I..." Norr-man reached up and pulled a strand of hair from her hand showed it to her. "have a another strand of hair that contains the material of another being such as a Na'vi yourself. then with with right amount of knowledge applied they can find what makes a Na'vi body a Na'vi but keep out what is needed to place their spirit in and match what makes Me a Skyperson and what is my Skyperson body and Identify what is needed to put my spirit into another form. When what is needed match that against what needed to create another body, training must be done so that one is able to move their spirit from the body they were born in and into the body that is their Dreamwalker form." Norr-man winced if he had attempted to tell her what the magic was behind the ways they use Dreamwalker bodies.

"You must learn to move your spirit from one body to another. So... to create them you need the hair of a Na'vi?" Ninet pulled back some.

"Actually, the essence we got of the Na'vi came from several bodies discovered a long time ago by one of our machines. From what I remember from my studies, that they had found the site of a battle and told the machine to gather samples from the dead. Some blood, some hair, a bit of skin, a fingernail, some urine had been expelled during a warrior's last moments alive." there was a long pause from Norr-man as he said that. "It took us years to understand the essence that had been found within those elements the machine had gathered, and the rules my people have over what to do with that knowledge weighed on us much. To bring back those dead Na'vi would have been wrong. They wouldn't have any knowledge of their world, they would living people that would have been blank slates that would be raised like children, so if we made an adult Na'vi, they would have the mind of a child. So given that, we have serious rules in place to prevent the duplication of adults. So what Sufferage is asking Max to do to bring that woman's child back, is just within our rules pertaining the creation of beings from the living essence. But using a process we are able to link the minds of two bodies together with a single consciousness. This is where the entire Avatar/Dreamwalker concept comes from. Mostly the main reason that we do this is that in environments that we are unable to function in because it is too dangerous or the people we need to interact with are just different disproportions in size." Ninet started to understand some of this.

"So you use these so you can interact with us because we are so much taller than you?" Norr-man nodded softly.

"Yeah... since I was a child I had been interested in the Na'vi, just that this is the reason that I spent so much time learning your language and culture. Mostly because of what happened with Jake winding up in your village, I had to train him plus, it was his brother Tom who saved my life at the cost of his when we were celebrating becoming AVTR drivers." There was a long pause from Norr-man when he said this. "The entire team had decided to celebrate after we had finished our training. Tom who was our expert on botany... The study of plants... Decided to while drinking to state the history of the beverage we were having and one of the individuals nearby took offence at what he was saying and took a swing at me with his fist." Ninet moved back in shock at this.

"Why would this person take offense at what your friend was talking about?"

Norr-man grinned a little bit with a level a sadness in his eyes.

"Well Tom had this talent of knowing many things. But he had a talent of starting a fight over the smallest thing." There was a pause at this point. "This was one fight that Tom should have walked away from. Hell even I should have walked away from. Between the two of us, we had won a bet pertaining to something that at the time seemed important. Well what we didn't know At the time was that the person we had wagered against and won had been convicted of several crimes and was out on bond. Well the man that Tom and me had challenged had lost the wager and out of spite he took out a gun after waiting outside of the bar. The man was going for me and Tom decided step in to shield me and was shot by him." Norr-man collapsed on the ground after saying this. Ninet reached out to Norr-man but it took him a moment to recover from this remembrance of this past pain. All Ninet wanted to know about the Dreamwalkers, now she had learned that Norr-man blamed himself for the death of JakeSully's brother.

"You blame yourself for TomSully's death and believe that by Helping Turok Macado that in some way you believe that you will be able to make amends for the life that was taken in your stead." Norr-man looked up at Ninet in shock but understanding. "Eywa has a plan for what is to come. It may be beyond our control, but it is a plan nonetheless." Ninet reached out and touched Norr-man's shoulder and he understood.

"Thank you Ninet..."

"Tell me a little about your Friend of the Jarhead Clan, Trudy."

* * *

Trudy hurt... Between the fog of the occasional sounds and the beep that screamed her respiration and heart rate, she heard a song.

It was Na'vi and it was nearby.

Over the years she had picked up a few phrases of Na'vi while working with Grace's Avatar Teams. But it wasn't until she had to spend time with Jake and Norm during his "Crash Course in Na'vi 101" that she had gotten to begin some basic conversations. Mostly with Norm and Grace.

But this song. It felt like it was important as she listened.

It was a retelling of a battle...

She focused again as she listened to the words.

_Turok Macdo... brought allies._

_the son of the leader of the Dreamwalkers_

_A daughter of the Jarhead Clan._

…

_Trudy of the Jarhead Clan._

…

The more she listened the more she understood that she was now part of the mythos of the Na'vi people.

_The Tree of Souls had been saved..._

_Now the battle to end the time of Sorrows was coming._

_It would be fought with words and heart._

That was when she heard another voice; one she thought had died years ago.

"Trudy of the Jarhead Clan... Rest... Heal... You will be needed in the future."

The voice was of...

"Able?"

With that she felt a hand on her forehead.

"Rest... Child of Gaia... the all mother has plans for you." With that Trudy didn't have to argue... Who was she going to argue with a Goddess especially one who sent a spirit from the land dead back to sooth her fears.

"Thanks... Tell Grace I said Hi."

"I will..."

With that Trudy put her energies into resting and healing her broken body and listened.

_Daughter of the Jarhead Clan_

_Born with the Blood and Spirit of an Ikran_

_Fought As a Sister of the People. _

The song continued on.

She wondered if at some point when she had recovered that she would teach the tales of the Jarhead clan to the Na'vi.

Maybe it would be something worth while.

* * *

Let me know what you think of this chapter.

Please post your comments and reviews to me.

Hearns


	6. Chapter 6

To all readers, I am looking for ideas for future chapters.

I know that fans want more Trudy, but what else do you want to see me write about?

Do you want a slice of life moment between characters?

The events that lead to Jake moving into his Avatar Permanently?

Trudy's recovery?

Let me know…

Well on with the Story.

* * *

Chapter 6:

* * *

Norman Spellman watched Parker Sufferage hold up the salvaged metal panel with the AMP suit. It was strange seeing the former pencil pusher work with his hands. Given that after the death of Tsu'tey Jake had discovered that Grace had rigged the link system to start to kick him out every few hours so linking back into his Avatar had been a little crazy. But considering that Grace's last wish was for him to start taking care of both bodies equally forced him to spend time with Sufferage. That and Sufferage hadn't figured out that Jake was Turok Macado was making things very interesting.

Norman swore that Sufferage was afraid that Turok would show up at any time and cut his head off and throw it into Hell's Gate. If he only knew.

Between having this heavy desire to help Jake in any way possible had made Sufferage less of a "Money Grabbing Jerk" and more of a person. But Mo'at's spiritual guidance had since the Tree of Spirits episode had made Sufferage more introspective of those around him. He was a leader of his people, the mining staff... He had to care about their wellbeing. It was no longer about the numbers on some report; it was about Joe in Accounting, Sue on flight operations, Gerald and Paniya in Maintaince... Ashlynn, Steve, Padma, Bowie in Hydroponics... Richard in Pit Operations... These were people, not numbers.

Mo'at was right about one thing... Sufferage had grown up a lot. That and Sufferage had been giving a rough rundown of the internal politics of how the RDA worked. Which surprisingly provided Jake an edge in bringing the unified clans of the Na'vi to the negotiation table as he had stated the coalition of the Na'vi clans in his report back to base and the Stockholders on her. Mostly Sufferage wanted the Unified Clans to understand that stating a statement of purpose for continued Human settlement on Pandora would prevent further problems in the future.

Mostly Sufferage saw that the Na'vi were curious about humans, but they did have some serious social taboos about some of the stuff going on with the forest. Hell after someone nearly dies and meets a planet's living Goddess and is sent back. You don't want to piss something that strong off again.

The entire "in perpetuity" Clause that the world governments had granted the RDA had pretty much irked the Na'vi, but Sufferage stated it was mostly set up for exploration purposes and that it was meant for contact. Mostly given that it was to pay for the trips back and forth between Pandora and Earth and that the RDA had recouped most of the initial costs through the mining and the research done at the station years ago. Jake stated that Grace was trying to find a way to move the colony away from mining or at least reduce the colony's dependence on it. Mo'at had come to Sufferage's defense in stating that after looking in his mind, she had gotten the information of why the Miners were there for the rocks in the ground. Hearing this, a conference was held of the leaders minus Sufferage to talk about this revelation.

During this Sufferage had been keeping a journal of what had been going down. But working on the link chamber had been keeping him sane. Mostly as a way to have a place to breathe that wasn't one of the medical tents. He still had the vomit stain on his shirt from when he had visited the other medical site and held the hand of some dying kid as he passed from one world to the next. He hadn't said if the kid was Human or Na'vi, but it didn't matter. He had seen first hand the impact of his actions or lack thereof in listening to the world around him and those in it.

Between the welding and pumping in of sealant into the gaps of the makeshift replacement wall Norman watched Sufferage tend to what needed to be done to setting out negotiations with the locals. Norm knew Sufferage was getting a little bit of karmic payback to how he had treated Jake and Grace. But it was doing wonders for the man's soul.

That is when word came of the decision the Unified Clans had made.

* * *

Hell's Gate three days later.

Parker Sufferage walked into the mess hall and spoke to the staff who had been gathered.

Looking over at the new station Commander Dominic this would be the end of things and the start of new.

"Everyone... Turok Macdo and the _Unified Clans of the Na'vi _have asked that Mining Operations on Pandora to be temporarily halted for a period of four years." There was a series of insults and yells from the mining staff and a few soldiers. This was when Dom pulled out his gun and fired a borax powder round into the ceiling which got everyone's attention as they were told to shut the hell up for the time being.

"This is to be done so the Na'vi do not come in here and slaughter everyone on the base." That fully got everyone' attention. "They are asking for this moratorium so that we can find other mining sites that are away from any villages, hunting grounds, and sacred sites." Parker waited for these words to kick in. "They know that there are people here on rotation as well as permanent staff. So... If you are scheduled to rotate out you will be allowed to leave on peaceful terms since they see that you are leaving their lands, this also includes the wounded who returned to Hell's Gate after the Battle." Parker knew that this would smooth things over with the staff and the unions here.

"Current arrivals as well as permanent staff will have a harder decision to make." Here came the But portion of his speech.

"We are asking volunteers to act a skeleton crew to man the station; we are looking for individuals who know geology mineral analysis and teaching skills. Now I have talked with several of the Research Science Staff and some of the Military personnel. They will be leaving a small number here to help. For the most part, this is a retooling of how we do things here. We are not abandoning the outpost, but we are reducing staff at Hell's Gate." There were a few grumbles, but this what historians would see as the start of stabile terms with the Na'vi. "That doesn't mean that we can't create other smaller compounds here on Pandora closer to our mining sites. The Na'vi like dealing with individuals in smaller groups of say a hundred or so because if one messes up and causes problems the rest of the group will take measures to ensure it will not happen again. Most of the problems have been caused by us tearing up large tracks of land with little return and much trouble. This move light policy and tap and go is seen as a way for us to figure out what ore sites we can go to and get the ore out by maximizing profit and available resources." Several of the Miners started to realize where Sufferage was going. "We were in the process of shutting several sites down that we have tapped out. Using a early Twenty-First century technique of land reclamation the Na'vi see this as us healing the land we have hurt. So given that we are asking for volunteers to stay and find out what techniques will work under this endeavor will get to keep their contracts. Now I know that not everyone will like this, but I have talked over with corporate and for the time being those who wish to leave will still have their contracts honored. I will personally go with you to ensure that the contracts are kept by the company." That last bit had come from the fact that Sufferage now saw that he was responsible for these people. It felt good...

There were no cheers, but there was an understanding. Things needed to change. A price had been paid in blood.

* * *

Dom walked around the station and looked through the lockers of several of the personnel leaving and had confiscated an untold amount of stolen Na'vi artifacts. A few of the officers who had died during the Tree of Souls mess had been part or a racket sending this stuff back to Earth illegally. Seeing the repatriation of these artifacts had smoothed things over with the local, but a few folks back on Earth would be pissed.

He didn't care...

Ever since the Able Ryder mess a few years back and the commander at that outpost had found another smuggling ring. It had lead to another layer of mess to be currently sorted through.

That was when one of his officers stepped forward.

"Sir, The Ossman girl has made contact with one her local Na'vi friends and has sent word back." With that the officer handed Dom the tablet computer and he hit play.

"Avatar Driver Molly Ossman, ah... Day Five out. My local contact with the Na'vi Tawkami Clan, Nok states that Turok Macdo, Rider of Last Shadow, has ordered warriors to watch for movement at Hell's Gate. Though to keep Titanotheres calm in case some rogue decides to cause trouble." There was a Pause before the girl started talking again. "To Further note, an AMP suit wondered into the village last night running on automatic. Some thought it was an attack, but seeing I was able to deactivate the suit and shut it down. Things did calm down some. But there is a sign of worry when the pilot was removed and him being dead." The girl looked a little rattled, "I have never seen a dead body before, but I had to state that the Suit had a mind of its own and the suit' was just returning back home with its rider." Dom understood the girl would be having nightmares about what had happened. "I need a way to get my communications tablet to talk with the suit so I can at least keep it from wanting to trash it's way through the camp here. But the driver has been wrapped up in my poncho and I'm ready to ride back to base on a Direhorse with them."

"Molly..." A voice called out as the girl quickly looked off screen and spoke something in Na'vi.

"Sorry, the Suit is getting jumpy again and I have to kill the ignition. Please send me a remote for this ASAP. Molly Ossman out." With that the transmission ended. Dom Rubbed his head.

"Send the girl the remote app for that suit and make sure that we get a line on who else we have in the field that if any of the Suits and gear that has an auto-return on that we at least have someone running an intercept before it runs into some locals. The last thing we need is some local thinking we are about to do another attack."

"Understood Sir." With that the officer left.

Dom turned to look through more lockers to see one come up Chacon, T. With that he opened it. Inside something caught his eye. It was a smart tablet and it was blinking. Tapping it the system's screen the unit did a facial scan and unlocked. Then the screen started playing a message. On the Screen was Trudy and she was wearing the blue and white of Na'vi war paint.

"Dom... If you are seeing this and you are alone. I rigged this to unlock in your presence. Trust me, if this terminal was destroyed by Quaritch, I rigged it to transfer to a random terminal so that you would know the reason why I did what I did." Dom moved and sat down on one of the locker benches and started to listen. "Back in basic training, my Commanding Officer had this hobby of being a historian. He used to tell us rookies these stories of being a Jarhead. Each had a lesson, but right now the one that sticks out is the one about the My Lai Massacre and the Helicopter Pilot who stood up against his own unit to protect the innocent of a village that couldn't fight back." The more Dom listened to Trudy talk he now understood why she had stood with Jake. He wasn't angry anymore at Trudy, but the pain was still there.

After listening to Trudy's recording for the third time, he got up and walked over to the nearest wall terminal and contacted the personnel desk for the colony.

"I need to find that embedded reporter here at Hell's Gate. Alison Boyd. I think I may have something for her to listen to and send to the people back home."

* * *

Seven Years later Alison Boyd would win the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism for her coverage of the Pandoran Crisis. Her report illustrated the flaws in the RDA and the Na'vi systems as well as put focus upon the people on both sides of the conflict. This caused new policies to be established by the RDA and other Interplanetary operations pertaining contact with other intelligent life in the galaxy. This would lead to the Prime Directive Authority Board to be established three years later.

Parker Sufferage would after securing the wages of the returning workers from Pandora when he returned to Earth quit his job with the RDA and started working with a private organization called Celestial Being Interplanetary. In a statement later of why he left the RDA, he stated that: "I trust people that listen to the world and souls around them more than the systems they are part of. A person who listens and sees the world unblinded has your back, a system just exists and does what it does for good or ill. It takes the soul of the person to make the right choices to be a force of good." He would later serve on a ship he renamed Tree of Gaia.

* * *

Please send a review of what you think so far and also…

Send me ideas for future chapters, I'm running a little dry here on ideas for this story.

Hurry…

Muse is thirsty… need ideas…

Ideas… (cough…cough… cough)


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

* * *

Sorry about taking so long to put this chapter up. I just found it a few nights ago and realized that I had a decent amount of material to start off another storyline as mentioned by Dracoessa. Yes, Parker is going to find out that Jake is Toruk Makto at a later point in this story, but I am saving that for the right opportunity so stay tuned.

For the fans... On with the story.

Most of this chapter follows the character of Molly from the Avatar Nintendo DS Game.

* * *

Trudy had spent the last couple of weeks having large amounts of cloned ECM (Extracellular matrix) deposited onto her skin to start the healing process of her body as well as some of the local medical cures of the Na'vi to take care of the pain she had experience from her burns. For some strange reason the remaining doctors on the base had wondered what had caused Trudy's body to change so much. It was as if the planet's biology had mixed with her wounded and injured tissues and started to rebuild them in accordance to some strange ideology that puzzled even them. But there was one thing; Trudy Chacon's name would be in the history books. Well at least three, the Na'vi, Military and Medical.

A few times that Jake had come by to talk with her had been brief. Mostly his visits had occurred in the middle of the night as he was going over Satellite data for finding a site for the Omaticaya clan, to move to so that they could reestablish their village. Looking at how the Hometree had fallen from the attack, it had been discovered that the Hometrees were built upon the ideas of organic architecture. They were structures that were not so much grown, but grafted together out of different trees and foliage from the forest. Given this, Jake had been spending hours performing searches for the plant life needed to replant or possibly start on the construction of a new Hometree. As a result several Avatar drivers who had backgrounds in Botanical research had been sent to study the remains of the old Hometree as well those of several other clans so that the cloning and growth process could start on the new structure. As things were going, it would take years for the initial superstructure to be build/grown even with hyper-excellerated cloning technology.

Trudy had gotten that bit from Jake as she lay soaking naked in the tank that was regrowing her skin.

A few times Neytiri had been able to squeeze herself into the medical bay and started to talk about the progress of Jake finding another home for her clan until the new Hometree could be regrown. Trudy had been able to make a few jokes with the Na'vi warrior, but it was the company that did the most good as they just talked and learned more of each other's language.

A few times Trudy could feel the muscle stimulators work on her body keeping up her muscle tone so she wouldn't spend several weeks in rehab getting her body back in shape. Neytiri had placed several shamanic items around her bed and on the leads to help make Trudy stronger. For Trudy, she didn't mind... Though... The two hours worth of chanting by her new sister of the Jarhead Clan for Eywa to heal her did tend to drag on. But it did do wonders to scare off anyone who wanted to take a stab at her for siding with the Natives of the world.

Now given that today would be the day that Trudy would be getting out of this tank of goo and start walking around today. Neytiri watched as Trudy was transferred on a wheelchair so that she could be cleaned up. Given that Neytiri had been wearing an atmospheric mask to breathe that had been developed by Grace during the early part of the Avatar Program so that the station would start to use local work talent.

A plan that never came to fruition due to the previous military commanders actions, Trudy could see the grin as on Neytiri's face as she watched Trudy being bathed by the doctor. Though seeing the remaining pattern of scars across Trudy's body had caught Trudy and Neytiri's attention as well as the doctor's.

"Trudy..." Neytiri said as she reached over and touched Trudy's naked back. "Your scars... They look like they belong..." That was when one of the medical techs moved over with an antiseptic medical black light and there was a gasp.

"Ms. Chacon... do you know that you suffer from Chimeraism." Trudy watched as she looked at her naked body underneath the diagnostic light. The small glowing speckled yellow patterns on her skin showed the clusters of bacteria and sweat glands she possessed.

"No... I did not know that I suffered from it... is it something bad? Or..."

"Well, I think the fire did save your life, the burns broke free the toxic tissue material on your body and somehow the new tissue has formed in the gaps. Looks like if you would have had any medical problems in the future they wouldn't have been as easily detected if they hadn't been identified. But somehow those seeds that had landed on your body during your crash seemed to have graphed some of their roots into your body and restored part of your body's nervous system thus giving you back the ability to feel."

"So..." Trudy waited for the other shoe to drop.

"Well, you have two sets of DNA, now three. But given that your body has been through the ringer because of the fire and crash... I would take it easy." The Doctor said looking at the patterns on her skin, but realizing that the large Na'vi in the room was thinking something along the lines of mysticism.

"So what you say is that Eywa has healed her with the spirit of the People?" Neytiri spoke softly as she touched Trudy's new skin.

"Eywa, God... Gaia... Whatever is out there has changed you Ms. Chacon. Probably whatever it was meant for you to live." The doctor said as he slowly washed the last of the material off of Trudy's skin. At that moment she needed someone to hug. Neytiri offered.

"It's a lot to take in..." She chuckled for a moment. "Wonder what Dom is going to think?"

"He will accept you sister." Neytiri said as the two of them chuckled. "Nothing has changed about the spirit that he has fallen in love with. Love with find a way as it has with me and my Jake." Trudy understood as she stood up wobbly out of the chair and was dried off.

Maybe this wouldn't be a bad change as Trudy looked at herself in the mirror taking the light from the doctor and looking over her frame. She did look a little like a Na'vi given how her skin looked. Maybe Eywa had heard her and done this to her as an act of kindness for her actions in defending the Tree of Souls. Turning off the light to see her soft mocha skin again then on, Na'vi... Human, Na'vi, Human, Na'vi...

Maybe this second chance at life wouldn't be a bad thing. That and right now she looked like a very primal warrior. Might scare a few of the newbies in a few years when the next batch of humans would be arriving at Hell's Gate. All she needed would be a pair of fangs.

* * *

Molly sat by the Tree in the Avatar compound. In the weeks since her Na'vi friends had helped her return the body of the fallen soldier, there had been talk about other tribes seeing the Armor that walks being commanded by the dead. It had taken Jake Sully several days to convince the Na'vi that the armor had a mind to it and without its rider it just retuned back towards its nest.

Her friend Nok had helped her guide the AMP suit back to Hell's Gate. Though rotating who had the beacon to control the suit got a little on the creepy side of things. But after awhile Nok had gotten used to the suit following him. But it was the body that they were transporting that had left her thinking a lot about life and death considering her own circumstances. Nok knew that she was a Dreamwalker, but what would he think of her when he learned that her human/Sky Person body was in an unawake-able sleep. What would he think of her then?

All of this was happening as Molly was watching a fellow Avatar driver named Chloe and the service robot Canti start harvesting crops for the Avatars. The robot's strange square box like head and lanky body was taller than the humans on the base but a head or two shorter than the Avatars. Hell she was practically eye level with the machine.

Suddenly Paninya came over to her. Though her friend wasn't an avatar driver, her late mother was... Hell Paninya was born here on Pandora, between her dark brown skin and her pulled back black hair and the blue coveralls you had to know that Paninya was different than most of the humans at Hell's Gate. But given that even Paninya had adopted a pseudo Na'vi hair style had made her friendly with some of the Tech staff. But hey Paninya was only sixteen going on seventeen. Molly was going to be hitting fifteen in the next month.

"Hey Molly... What's up?" Paninya moved over and sat down to her friend.

"Paninya... could you go away?" Molly's words were difficult to say but as she wiped away a tear Paninya understood that her friend was deep in thought.

"Listen... I know that you are bummed about being stuck here..." Molly sulked away. "I mean, I have been dealing with Blood in Amp Suits." With that Molly glared at her friend.

"Blood... Do you know about Blood... I freaking had to transport the body of some dead guy back here to Hell's Gate Pan..." Molly shot to Paninya's eye level. "Do you know what it is like seeing a limp body that was once a living person..." Molly was screaming at this time. "Do you know what it is like that my real body is like that... But it is still breathing." Paninya moved backwards.

"Oh..." Paninya said as she looked at her friend realizing why she was sitting by herself. "... your body is in a coma and..."

"Yeah... I have one body near death and I can only experience the world through this one." Molly slammed her fist to the ground.

"Hey... hey..." Paninya moved over and hugged her. Molly could feel the hot tears moving down her eyes. "Don't worry you have friends here." At this time several Avatars, science staff and a few Na'vi started to look in the direction of the commotion. That was when a young Na'vi warrior moved towards them. For Molly, this was the first time other than being in Nok's village she had seen the warrior of another clan.

"Listen you do not know what it is like for me Paninya, to live like this. You at least have a body that functions normally. At least Sully was able to move around when he was outside of the link chamber and the guy doesn't have use of his freaking legs!" Molly picked up a rock and flung it hard against the Avatar shack and it bounced off of the wooden wall. "If someone unplugs me from my Avatar... I can't reconnect until someone plugs me back in. I don't see, I don't hear, I don't feel. Hell I have to rig up a remote to communicate back with the link here at Hell's Gate to boot up every morning so that I can get up."

The Na'vi and most of the Avatars nearby were starting to gather together around her.

"Molly..." Paninya moved away some to stop the crowd from growing any bigger. "You are scared that when the bulk of the staff clears out, that most of the medical staff will go with them and your body... your human body will be left unattended... and it might get sick and while you are with Nok that you might collapse because your human body has died." Molly nodded at this.

"I mean, I have to think about things that a girl my age doesn't have to... Shit... My father was the Abomination Maker... He died after the project he was on blew up in his face... The Coma he fell into... someone forgot to check his body and he died." Molly was emotional fragile at this time. "Someone forgets to check on my body and something happens... I am screwed..." Paninya moved in and hugged Molly hard.

"Don't worry, we will find a way to take care of you Molly." Paninya said trying her best to calm down her Avatar friend.

"Her Tawtute body is cursed with the sleep that doesn't awaken?" a young female Na'vi warrior said as Molly clung close to Paninya. "I will not hurt you. I know if someone destroys this body, you cannot go back. You will be trapped." The warrior reached out and caressed Molly's face. "I see you. You are not evil. Evil things have happened to you. But you are not evil. The Good in your heart is there." That was when a tree Sprite landed on Molly's nose. "Even Eywa understands. The All-mother will help where she can."

"What about Turok Macdo? Will he listen to Eywa?" Molly said expressing her fears.

"I will take you to him." With that everyone's attention was on the fourteen year-old girl. "I am Ell'a'u of Omaticaya."

* * *

"Could you run that by me again?" Dominic Riddick said shaking his head as he looked across the holographic map of Hell's Gate.

"You heard me right Sir. Molly Ossman might have scored a meeting with Turok Macdo himself." Chance Jones said as he watched the new Base Commander go over the current relocation of personnel to the shuttles.

"How did this come about?" Dominic said as he pulled up Molly's personnel file on the tablet computer in his hand.

"Well given the stress that most of the personnel have been feeling. I was expecting someone to crack, but Molly is a unique case. As you can tell, she is only one of a handful of Avatar Drivers that has been disabled. But her case is as you can tell sticks out." Dominic read as he looked up from the data.

"Her human body is in a permanent coma."

"Yes sir. For the most part her father was a controversial researcher who attempted to bend the local animal life to his will with a mix of cybernetic implants and AVTR telepathy technology." There was a pause from Chance before he continued. "For the most part Ossman's research blew up in his face after one of the local Na'vi sabotaged his equipment. He wound up in a vegetative state." There as a look of sadness as Dominic read the file.

"Looks like he died after some tech screwed up the medication dosage on his body." Dominic said as he looked at the medical report.

"Yes and he was a day away from having genetic material extracted for a creation of an Avatar body for him." Chance spoke as he pulled up some more records. "Given Molly's unique case, Dr. Augustine adopted her."

Dominic was looking around as the wounded were being evacuated out from Hell's Gate, some would need some serious skin grafts to treat the damage done. But the psychological damage was clear on them as they made their way to the shuttle for takeoff. For Molly, the damage was considerable, but for her, she couldn't leave because of her condition.

"Does Dr. Augustine have any next of kin on the base or did she leave a last will and testament?" Dom said as he started to work through the data.

"No sir and we are checking to see if Quaritch did a file deletion on her research and notes to cover his ass. But right now we have a few of the remaining computer techs doing their best to gather up information to connect a download system to Eywa so that we can present information to the Off World Oversight Committee." Dom sighed.

"So it is going to be a while then." Dom turned to look at the screen. "Well tell the staff that I need to talk with Sully to see what he can do to help us put with this situation."

"Will do sir." Chance said as he moved out of the room to leave Dom to look over more of the reports on the desk.

"Well Turok Macdo, looks like we are going to meet sooner than expected." Dom said as he started to type up the last of the post mission reports of the last few days of the battle that had taken place.

* * *

Note:

ECM (Extracellular matrix) is a real material created from the processed meats industry. It has been used as a scaffold to help skin and muscle grafts for severe injuries. For the Combat Hospital Doctors in the Middle East, ECM has earned the nickname Pixie Dust due to the magic it performs on the wounds. Check it on out Wikipedia. They have much more in-depth data on it than I can give here.

* * *

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Hearns


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